Search:meditative sounds

New roots & dub from the Swedish Meditative Sounds camp featuring vocalist Ras McBean, mixed by Dougie Conscious.

This tune has a long history. We recorded some tracks with Prince Jamo back in 2010, of which this was one of them. A couple of years back Andreas picked up this track again with the idea of making a new riddim for it with live musicians and a more organic feel. Linking it up with Earth Works studio & musicians at the studio aka Signal One Band.
The riddim was then sent to Aba Ariginal for horns overdubs.

Andreas did make this all happen, so this is a retrospect release, in the loving memory of our brother, a true rootsman soldier, Andreas Weslien.

Swedish composer and multi-instrumentalist Gustaf Ljunggren invites listeners into the quiet, reflective world of Along the Low Road , an ambitious solo album that balances delicacy with depth. Following the success of Ljunggren s 2022 release Floreana , this new release offers a gentle, dream dream-like musical journey, shaped by two of the Nordic scene s most imaginative and intuitive musicians. Balancing sparse acoustic instrumentation with sprawling affected soundscapes, the album moves with patience and clarity. Ljunggren s compositions provide a foundation for subtle interplay, where every note and gesture is attentive to the music s unfolding. Featured guest Icelandic bassist Skúli Sverrisson s bass provides warmth and grounding, supporting Ljunggren s guitar, ukulele, and multi multi-instrumental textures. The result is a sound that is at once intimate and expansive, inviting reflection and connection. The tracks draw inspiration from nature, landscapes, and personal experience. Lille Skotland " evokes the rocky coast of Bornholm with gentle, melancholic flow, while Stevelen " captures the quiet power of cliffs and open skies. The title track, Along the Low Road," traces a contemplative path, its cyclical melodies and ambient layers offering perspective and calm. Letters Melting " twists a classical chord progression into a reflective polska, while Summer Passing Letting Go " balances warmth and transition. Brief, hymn hymn-like pieces such as Tillfrisknandet " provide moments of repose, and playful minimalism in Nine Again " captures the wonder of childhood at the cusp of youth. The album closes with Here And Not Here," a meditative reflection on perception and presence, leaving the listener in a quiet, suspended space. Ljunggren and Sverrisson have long been celebrated for their generosity, sensitivity, and courage as collaborators. Their work together on Along the Low Road continues this partnership, offering music that listens as much as it plays. Drawing from jazz, minimalism, Nordic folk, and early music, the duo s sound combines melodic clarity with a sense of freedom, revealing subtle emotional depths in each composition. In concert, Ljunggren and Sverrisson reimagine these pieces in the moment, allowing the music to unfold with a sense of shared discovery. Whether recorded or live, the album is a testament to the duo s enduring musical dialogue and the quiet, immersive beauty of their Nordic sensibility.

Since 1992, Robin Storey (founding member of the pioneering post-industrial band Zoviet*France) has been creating innovative and thought-provoking music under the Rapoon moniker. Drawing inspiration from his early days with Z*F, he continues to push the boundaries of ambient, industrial, and world music genres, earning him a dedicated following across the globe.

Originally available in 1994 as a limited-edition DAT tape through Staalplaat Records, Cidar was later included as a bonus CD in the reissue of another Rapoon classic, Fallen Gods. Now, after years of anticipation, fans can experience this mesmerizing work as a stand-alone release – remastered and expanded with three previously unreleased tracks from the original 1994 recording sessions.

Cidar showcases Robin’s signature sound – a seamless blend of Z*F-inspired drones and loops intertwined with vibrant African percussion and hauntingly beautiful Asian string instruments. This combination creates an immersive, trance-like atmosphere that transports listeners into a world of meditative sonic exploration.

With its enchanting rhythms and deeply textured layers, Cidar stands as a testament to Robin’s unparalleled ability to craft music that defies genre boundaries while remaining instantly recognizable. Fans of both Zoviet*France and Rapoon will find themselves drawn into the hypnotic sounds of this timeless masterpiece.

The standalone release of Cidar marks an important milestone in the history of experimental music, offering audiences worldwide the opportunity to rediscover or experience for the first time one of Robin Storey’s most influential works.

'Tense from the first note and decisively uncompromising ‘GHSTING’ is the debut collaboration by Polish artists Alex Freiheit and Aleksandra Słyż, an incredibly unique piece of work that mixes fiction, spoken word poetry, theatrical antics, dense synthesis, acoustic ensemble and dark landscapes all set within the backdrop of a sinister Eastern Europe hotel. The resulting sound is menacing, humorous, harmonious, tumultuous, and at times quietly erotic.

Alex Freiheit, a poet and vocalist, is widely recognized for her captivating work with the SIKSA duo. Over the past decade, she has delved into the realms of personal feminist storytelling, postmodern fairy tales, and queer legends, crafting unique and thought-provoking narratives. In this groundbreaking collaboration with talented composer Aleksandra Słyż, they are now delving into the herstory of lies and exaggerations, extracting the raw essence of these tales filled with stench, stains, secretions, and torn organs. Eyeless Freiheit haunts the hotel guests while dressed in a binder and holding a bottle filled with a corrosive substance. She shares compelling stories about the hidden activities and other secrets that unfold within the walls of hotels when no one is watching. Her gripping narrative is complemented by equally haunting and eerie music. Słyż divides the text into four chapters, skillfully intertwining synthetic and acoustic elements. She combines the sounds of synthesizers, woodwind and percussive instruments with vocals, creating a tense, dynamic soundscape. Freiheit’s voice possesses an earnest quality, where a frightening cadence suspiciously flips into a meditative cycle.

Together, Freiheit and Słyż have crafted a bold and suggestive story that feels like the mesmerizing soundtrack to a contemporary Eastern European horror film, captivating an essence that is hard to pinpoint but instantly recognizable. This is abstractly powerful music that pushes listeners into a kaleidoscopic spiral that channels ecstatic over loss.

Passages in Time, the third album from Kasper Bjørke Quartet, traces the contours of a blend of spiritual jazz reverence and the calming grandeur of '80s ambient. Inspired by Christopher Nolan's observation that "time is the most fundamental part of our human experience," the compositions are approached as fragments of time and memory. Meditations on the elusive nature of time form the heart of the work, merging freeform jazz improvisations with cyclical synthesizer patterns that mirror its quiet undulations.
Dreamy synths intertwine with guitar, harp, trumpet, flugelhorn, saxophone, and flute, creating a spacious environment for contemplation. The music invites reflection on the choices that shape our lives and the lives of those closest to us, and on the quiet weight of our priorities within the brief span we call life on this planet. Each passage unfolds as a fleeting moment suspended in time. The subtitles hint at fragments from someone's diary, tender observations of love, parenthood, and connection. Together, the passages form a musical memoir of sorts, where memory and emotion are gently woven into the compositions.
Passages in Time does not impose structure or meaning, it reflects them, offering an open space as the instruments drift in and out of focus, tracing time's subtle rhythms and inviting the listener to infuse their own memories and meaning into these passages.
The album also marks a transformation for the Quartet project itself. Langstrakt (Claus Noreen), part of the original ensemble, continues to operate the synthesizers alongside Bjørke, while the wider constellation of contributing musicians has evolved. Strings and piano give way to flute and saxophone by Oilly Wallace, guitars by Danish ambient composer Anna Roemer, trumpet and flugelhorn by Malthe Kaptain, and cascading orchestral harp by Katie Buckley, principal harpist with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra.
The cover painting is by American artist Marcus Leslie Singleton, courtesy of V1 Gallery, and reflects the meditative and timeless atmosphere of the music.
Passages in Time is released on Bjørke's own imprint, Sensitive Records, following the two previous Quartet albums released on Kompakt Records: The Fifty Eleven Project (2018), a debut that introduced Bjørke's ambient and neoclassical explorations, and Mother (2022), which expanded the ensemble's sound with emotive choir compositions and guest appearance by Sofie Birch (Unsound / Stroom). Together, these three albums trace a journey of artistic growth, from introspective experimentation to a fully realized, contemplative expression of time, memory, and human connection.

A sprawling, meditative journey into inner and outer space, the new double album from Ivan The Tolerable sees Oli Heffernan retreat fully into the solo realm - crafting an expansive sonic world that feels both intimate and cosmic in scope. Recorded entirely alone and released via Riot Season, this latest work drifts away from structured forms and toward something more fluid, exploratory, and transcendent.
Drawing on the devotional atmospheres of early ambient pioneers and the hypnotic pulse of kosmische music, the album unfolds as a series of slowly shifting soundscapes—analog synths breathing in long, patient waves, tape loops dissolving into shimmering drones, and melodies that seem to emerge from nowhere before gently receding again. There are echoes of ritual, of vast landscapes, of time stretching and folding in on itself.
Across its two discs, Heffernan embraces a deeply immersive approach—less concerned with destination than with the act of drifting itself. It’s music that invites stillness and surrender, equally suited to deep listening or quiet disconnection from the noise of the everyday.
Unbound by genre yet rooted in a rich lineage of experimental sound, this is Ivan The Tolerable at his most introspective and transportive - a double album that doesn’t just ask for your attention, but your presence.

Fides Records proudly presents the second last chapter of its 10-year anniversary series: X6. Here, the narrative pivots toward groove and immersion between Detroit-rooted sounds, jazz-infused flair, glitchy futurism, and deep dub meditation. This chapter highlight the label’s love for movement, texture, and long-form atmosphere.

Side A opens with Fireground’s “Aquaria”, a sexy, bouncing techno cut carrying old-school Detroit spirit and harmonic fluidity: funky yet refined, shaped by the Italian duo’s live-set mentality, live improvisation and vintage synthesisers. Human Safari’s “Havanas” follows, merging jazz and techno through a standout trumpet solo and lush groove work, carving out a vibrant, genre-crossing mood that feels both bold and effortless. Closing the side, 1morning’s “You Heard Me The First Time” delivers early-2000s techno DNA with a modern edge: glitchy rhythms, unpredictable sequencing, and a playful sense of tension-and-release.

Flipping to Side B, Macedonian master Stojche leads with “Perpetual Sin”, a dub techno lesson in restraint: evolving through spacious layering and emotional subtlety until it fully envelops the room. The record closes with Z.I.P.P.O & Mareena’s “Moonchild”, a tribal, dub-infused deep techno immersion where percussive drive meets meditative energy—an internal journey built for big systems and late hours.

DISPLACES represents Fabris' most personal musical journey to date, inspired by the concept of hyperobjects and cartographic practices. The album sculpts a high-dimensional phased time-space composed of concrete materials and digital archetypes in a state of constant displacement. It delves into the symbolic and philosophical realms of mapping as one of the greatest sense-making mechanisms for life, in dialogue with object-oriented environments, superimposition and non-locality applied to cosmic, temporal, and emotional memory.

The sonic ecosystem expands on the image of navigating a path through a set of places, from the microcosm of quanta to the macro force of dark matter, from underwater depths to overland terrains, encapsulating the cyclical flow between birth and death, both in ecological and anthropological sense. The intersection of these shifting states is explored through the extensive processing of the langspil, Iceland's only traditional instrument, intertwined with manipulated field recordings of biophonies and geophonies captured across Icelandic and Venetian territories. These recordings form the backdrop for a meditative process that relocate familiar objects into unfamiliar realms, reflecting on the transformative power of self-reflection while encapsulating the fragmentation and entanglement found in nature and the human state. The record plunges the listener into a disconcerting and physical soundscape, as a “ghostly spectrality that comes in and out of phase with normalized human spacetime,” evoking sensations of suffocation and release as each layer continuously unfolds the palimpsest of the enclosed labyrinth.

“Extraction of the I” embodies a subatomic reaction—erupting as a molecular force that rises, only to re-submerge with a solitary exhale underwater. In this mutated dark space, beluga whales breathe into "Xanadu Phasing," creating a pulsating tension that releases only to unveil a frozen landscape.

In “Barricading the Ice Sheets” the glacial material morphs into a liquid tunnel of digital artifacts, building a wall of noise that shatters into scattered fragments of ice, resembling bird calls from another world.

A moment of stasis is offered with the appearance of an asymmetrical loop in Monolith I, evoking a primitive rite before an unknown force emerges.

The physical intensity of subsonic material in "A Quake in Being" interrupts the hieratic tone, detuning into polluted sonic matter sourced from relics of the First World War in the Venetian Prealps. The geography of this place reconciles with the original homeland in "The Map is the Territory," blending negative space with anthropogenic elements and exploited sounds of the langspil.

The burning density of "Wolf-Rayet" projects into the void, echoing the residual sounds of a local church as relics of fossilized religions. Wolf tones are the remains in Monolith II, introducing the final track, "Topography of Extinction," where evolving psilocin textures invite the listener to uncover deeper layers of meaning and dislocation.

Yanuka is the solo project of acclaimed keyboardist, composer and producer Tomer Zuk and here he makes his debut on Ma Ze Music with Hashrika and No Tomorrow. Known for his cinematic touch and eclectic style, Zuk blends Middle Eastern motifs, hypnotic grooves, and meditative atmospheres into what feels like a modern-day Morricone from the desert. There are psyched out 60s elements, Library music overtones, funk, soul and jazz instrumentals and great sound designs all bringing these two mysterious and enchanting sounds alive. The first is a late-night wander that echoes Khrangbuin and the second is all wah-wah magic and slick, rolling rhythms.

2026 Repress

French DJ/producer Mathys Lenne's artistic vision is rooted in his deep connection to rhythm. Telling stories with his sounds while drawing inspiration from poetry and cinema and blending hypnotic textures with raw intensity, his music is widely supported across the scene via labels like Mord, Hayes and more. Across five vinyl cuts and three digital bonuses, the four-deck wizard keeps it deeply atmospheric with his label debut on SHDW's Mutual Rytm imprint, combining elements of psychedelic rock, unique voice samples and saturated synths to create a sound that feels immersive and unrestrained in contrast to the fast-paced, visceral techno he has become known for.

'Detlev' opens up with hefty kicks that demand you quicken your step, while industrial effects and creepy design brings the detail that makes the track pop. The classy 'Natural Born Killers' rides on firm kicks with loopy percussive details tightly coiled, ensuring you are forever on edge as the drums march on. 'Choose Your Pill' is a stripped-back and pulsing deep techno cut with deft synths that peel off the groove, before 'Untidy Echo' delivers a cavernous sound with sparse hits and low-end rumbles that place you in the centre of an underground cavern. 'Enfer ou Ciel' featuring D.E.S brings a sense of melancholy in the occasional string sounds and watery droplets that float over more frictionless, meditative beats - while the trio of digital bonus cuts brings moody subterranean rollers ranging
from snaking and dubby to more drum-led and eerie tones.

Tom Joyce’s sought after Sounds Benefit label marks their milestone tenth release with “7 Years Of Sounds Benefit”, a carefully curated selection of essential artists and rising talents presented as a double vinyl LP. The two slabs of wax manoeuvre between innovative electro and refined flavours of house and techno for trained ears.

First up is a reissue from S-Max, New Delhi Projects, previously released on Below back in ‘99. A chugging display of sounds that were way ahead of their time. After featuring on SND002, Ben Cohen makes his comeback on the label with Short Night, a breakbeat journey which boasts beautiful and emotive chord progressions. The B side features somewhat of a rarity as Etienne shares a track, Gateway Experience, futuristic energy from the accomplished producer, layered with subtle yet effective acid tones. Label head Tom Joyce delivers 7:15pm, a dreamy quest through melt in your mind synths and punchy electro drum patterns.

As we approach the second vinyl, we uncover further gems from the archive as Lowtec kindly shares his unreleased La Java 2014, which was created circa. 2000. Javier Carballo and Aniano have been making positive movements with their Hdz moniker in recent times, and Moog is another stamp of approval, a warm bass line converses with the crisp drums and spaced out elements. On the flip, Berlin based Englishman Rob Amboule turns out a killer elasticated groove which takes you for a late night shuffle in Scrap It. Huge fun for the hazy hours on the dance floor. Nuversion, formerly known as Juliano, showcases his debut track under this name with Crepuscule, addressing further pensive moods with his classy production. Ending the fantastic release in a meditative state of mind, cruising on sweet melodies.

SPTLP008 - Aural Imbalance - Fractional Spaces LP

Returning for his third solo album on Spatial, Aural Imbalance continues his journey through the cosmos with a breathtaking array of breaks, bass and inimitable ambient wizardry.

A1 - Fading Reality

Kicking off the album we are treated to a blissfully ambient intro akin to a perfect sunrise across a tranquil unfurling landscape - just as we have come to know and love from Aural Imbalance. Long, airy washes of textured pads usher in a fantastically snappy break pattern which brings an alluring energy to proceedings, driving the track along with funnels of tuneful melodies lazily drifting by in the ambience.

A2 - This Time

Jumping right into the breaks DJ-style with a delicious Hot Pants pattern, This Time's central theme utilises a hypnotic simple but effective chime melody that plays a key role throughout the track, alongside fluttering birdsong and a luscious array of samples. The exquisite breakdown which delights with an incredible blend of bass atmospheric synths & pads is both beautiful and poignant.

B1 - Always With You

Introduced by what sounds like footsteps echoing through the darkness, Always With You lives up to its title by surrounding you with a warmth usually reserved for arriving home and nestling by the fire. Driven by delicate but vibrant breakbeats, this track showcases Aural Imbalance's relentless dexterity with ambient soundscapes dancing in perfect harmony with deep 808 bass and old school beats.

B2 - Solarity

Lightly excitable hats and elegantly filtered breaks open Solarity, a deeply evocative track with breakbeats rising through the intro towards a drop with solid analogue kicks and a wonderfully deep and persistent bassline. Sporadic micro melodies cruise the waves of floating synthwork, effects rippling gently in the foreground and background of the mix like playful phosphorescence.

C1 - First Protocol

Up next we see Aural Imbalance crack the amen knuckles with a real treat for old school heads - an ambient, synthy ambient laden with incredibly light spaced-out hats through the flowing waves is soon jolted into life by a satisfyingly crisp amen break, edited and programmed with flair and majestic detail that sits perfectly with the light, often sullen textured soundscape drifting above.

C2 - Crystals

An otherworldly landscape brimming with wonder and intrigue unfolds with Crystals, an atmospheric delight with a twist. The serene opening leads into a terrific old school break which takes center stage, punchy in the mix and edited with a precision as shimmering textures and meditative synthwork are expertly layered around the ever-rolling beats, perfect for any occasion at home or the 160bpm dancefloor.

D1 - Velarious

Continuing his showcase of breaks from across the atmospheric drum & bass spectrum, Aural Imbalance introduces Velarious with a quietly epic ambient flow, with filtered drums creeping in before the drop arrives, breakbeats buoyed by some seriously deep 808 bass and distinct hi hats. Micro melodies intersect and reverberate throughout the track to complete an enduring and eclectic composition.

D2 - South Coast Sunrise

Closing with a good old fashioned love letter to the Hot Pants break, South Coast Sunrise perfectly encapsulates its title with a gorgeous panoramic overlay of ambience, spread over an intensely memorable edit of that classic break - programmed and mixed to remarkable effect and cementing Aural Imbalance's ongoing rise as a master of edits as well as ambience, fully realised for our listening pleasure on Spatial.

When people think of Yacht Rock-those smooth, sun-drenched sounds that once drifted from Californian radio stations in the late '70s and early '80s-they rarely imagine it echoing through rehearsal rooms in Hamburg or Linz. Yet even far from the Pacific coastline, the appeal of shimmering chords, laid-back grooves, and polished production found fertile ground.
This compilation gathers rare and overlooked tracks from Germany and Austria. These artists embraced West Coast aesthetics with sincerity and subtle twists, resulting in music that feels both familiar and refreshingly new-smooth sounds for cloudy skies. So drop anchor, pour something cool, and enjoy this unexpected cruise through the lesser-charted waters of Euro Yacht Rock.

Our journey begins in Austria, where Reflection's Because (1981) set the tone with blue-eyed soul and analogue warmth-a sunlit blend of Doobie Brothers polish and local charm. Its creator, Dieter Heyduk, reappears with Austrian Sky, a heartfelt nod to his homeland that fuses mountain calm with oceanic longing.
From the North Sea island of Föhr, Ara Pacis dreamed of California on their 1979 self-release To the Westcoast. Inspired by Steely Dan and Lake, they turned German rock precision into breezy, melodic sophistication. Meanwhile, in Düsseldorf, Mainpoint fused funk and jazz-rock on Frisbee, their 1980 single bursting with rhythmic drive and optimism before the tide of the Neue Deutsche Welle swept such grooves aside.
Bremerhaven's Nuages offered the compilation's only instrumental gem, Strange Weekend (1985)-a gentle blend of jazz-funk and rock and largely lost to time. Its cool restraint captures the European interpretation of Californian ease.
Around the same period, British traveler Gavin James recorded River of Laughter in southern Germany, backed by the blues-rock band Black Cat Bone. His acoustic reflections on water and flow mirrored the soft, meditative pulse at Yacht Rock's core.
Berlin's Top Spin kept things playful with Bikin (1985), a funk-fusion snapshot of urban joy that showcased the city's finest session players. From the Ruhr area, the Jan Pack Band is up next. While not a typical Yacht Rock track, Cable Dance is driven by an effortless, groovy '80s vibe.
Peter Seiler's Goldfinger project reimagined Walkin' in the Sand as a relaxed reggae-tinged track, while Munich's Major Seven closed the voyage with Silverboat, a wistful soft rock ballad gliding between melancholy and light.

Across these hidden harbors of German and Austrian pop, the West Coast dream took on new forms-reflected in rivers, skies, and studio lights half a world away from L.A. Under and Above the Clouds celebrates that spirit: the enduring pull of smooth music, wherever it's made.

Helsinki based newcomer DJ Sofa debuts on Up Ya Archives Records with the release of 'Lionheart’, the title track to their forthcoming EP, landing on the 12th November 2025.

Drawing inspiration from pioneering duo Digital & Spirit, ‘Lionheart’ channels a moody, mysterious energy. Driven by an organic-meets-machine dub sensibility, the track weaves hypnotic chants and meditative basslines into a soundscape that’s both harsh and mesmerizing. Letting the amen break breathe, ‘Lionheart’ captures an emotional intensity that runs throughout the wider EP.

Rooted in a love for 90s and early 2000s jungle, DJ Sofa’s production pays homage to the era’s raw sound and spirit whilst pushing it forward. Conceptually, the record explores bravery, self-determination, and finding strength in uncertainty. It’s a personal statement of resilience and creative growth from an artist carving out their own path.

Despite operating under this alias for only a few years, DJ Sofa has already made waves with standout releases on Future Retro, with a Tim Reaper collaboration titled ‘Helsinki to London Connection’ and N4, Straight Up Breakbeat, and Ruff n Tuff. Alongside other statement releases which are reminiscent of nineties jungle and their childhood love of The Prodigy, their performances at iconic nights such as Rupture London have cemented their rising status in the scene.

Utter presents Marshall Jefferson's previously unreleased meditation opus 'Yellow Meditation For The Dance Generation' alongside two remixes from French production maestro Joakim.

Marshall Jefferson: Chicago House music pioneer, creator of the anthemic ‘Move My Body’, an original collaborator of Adonis, Ce Ce Rogers and Roy Davis Jr., production mastermind of countless dancefloor classics such as Phuture’s ‘Acid Tracks’, Sterling Void’s ’It’s All Right’, Hercules’ ‘7 Ways’… and the soothing voice behind a 36 minute healing meditation guide. Yes, really.

But let’s rewind, slightly.

In 2017, Marshall was approached and encouraged by Ian ‘Snowy’ Snowball to write his autobiography and the pair set about putting Marshall’s account of the history of House music together. The book, ‘Marshall Jefferson: Diary of a DJ’ was published in 2019.

Following the book’s release, Ian and Marshall's collaboration continued and during the pandemic an outlandish idea arose to create a piece of music combining Ian's interest in meditation (he runs Club Chi specialising in Shibashi Qigong - a form of Tai Chi Qigong - which is a gentle form of movement therapy/exercise) and Marshall's willingness to experiment musically to see what might be possible.



The result is ‘Yellow Meditation For The Dance Generation’, where Marshall vocalises Ian’s lyrics in his instantly recognisable voice. The keen-eared out there may also recognise aspects of the music itself as a stripped back, lengthened and far mellower version of Marshall’s 1985 obscurity ‘Vibe’:

“I would take tapes to the Music Box and Ron Hardy would play my music. ‘Vibe’ was one of those tracks. I recorded ‘Vibe’ in 1985, but it became one of my tracks that I just forgot about until some guy on Facebook sent me a recording of it that was taken from a club. The only person who I ever gave a recording of ‘Vibe’ to was Ron Hardy. The other people I know who had copies of the track were Gene Hunt and Emanuel Pippin (DJ Spookie).

"The original version of ‘Vibe’ was made using a Roland 707, Roland JX-8P keyboard and a Roland 727 drum machine. I was still working at the Post Office at the time, and this was pre-‘Move Your Body (The House Music Anthem)’. ‘Vibe’ has the building blocks for ‘Move Your Body’ because it was using the instruments on the track that I discovered what I could do with the bass sound, to make a track like ‘Move Your Body’.”



Still, Ian’s initial intention for ‘Yellow Meditation’ was function and it was designed to be a ‘Sequential Relaxation Exercise’ focusing on the Solar Plexus. Bearing this in mind, Marshall took a bare-bones and hypnotic approach to this particular re-recording of ‘Vibe’ so that the voice takes centre stage and listeners (hopefully) find themselves on a meditative journey. In fact, this long-form track was always intended as a private tool purely for meditation at Club Chi rather than released to the public - after all, Marshall had also created and released a more drum heavy, ’traditional’ club-focused 'Vibe Three' instrumental version for that very purpose - but a chance airing of the full 36 minute version changed its path.



Much like those 1985 ‘Vibe’ cassettes, Marshall had sent the track to a few close contacts, one of whom was Kieran at Phonica Records who aired it over the shop’s basement soundsystem. Its unorthodox nature caught the ear of colleague Alex (of Utter) and the seeds of a physical release were planted.

Eventually, with the full-version carefully whittled down to a vinyl friendly length of 24 minutes, full track parts in hand and a b-side to fill, Alex sought out one of his favourite producers to take up the remix reigns: Joakim. The Tigersushi co-founder and Crowdspacer boss has a long history of boundary-pushing remixes that straddle both dancefloor functionality and experimentation. This time the original material resulted in Joakim coming up with a number of ideas and he finally delivered two versions - one club focused (‘Vertical’), the other more introspective and meditative (‘Horizontal’), both of which appear on the final 12”.

The limited edition 12” also includes a download code giving buyers access to all of the vinyl tracks plus an 18 minute extended version of Joakim’s ‘Horizontal’ remix, its instrumental counterpart (for those who can live without Marshall's voice) and full 12 minute acapella (for those who can't!)


Alex

a A1. Yellow Meditation For The Dance Generation (Edit) 24:00
b B1. Yellow Meditation For The Dance Generation (Joakim's Vertical Remix) 9:09
9:05

The latest wayward soundsystem sonics on the Social come from Wroclaw in Poland courtesy of dadan karambolo. As part of the strictly legit SPLOT crew karambolo is spearheading a vibrant community of bassweight freaks digesting all the best misfit club music from the cracks between — a hint of dubstep, a twist of techno and plenty of advanced sound design, all poured into a thoroughly modern, richly realised brew.

Having previously snuck tunes out on SPLOT’s in-house label and the respected Awkwardly Social crew out of Berlin, karambolo delivers an extended statement with his Sneaker Special Club debut. Subtle pressure is the order of the day as he zeroes in on evocative soundscaping and a subdued mood, all while piling on ample low end intensity and edging some sharp angles out of the meditative roll. Even when minuscule slithers of amen breaks sneak into ‘Awkward Expression’, the ambience remains somewhere between dream and dread while ‘Huskarl’ scatters industrial jackhammers across a vast tundra of drone.

‘Done For’ steps forward a touch more forthright with its grime-coded bass spasms, deploying the kind of bludgeoning physicality and ruthless reduction you might associate with fellow Sneaker alumni, Mars89. ‘Burbot’ also switches the script for a cheeky B3 that toys with 80s electro chopped into a snappy breakbeat and underpinned with a sticky synth line. Sidestepping direct dancefloor routes in search of different ways to achieve movement in the club, karambolo has more than matched the over-arching Sneaker ideal with an assured, original transmission from the outer limits of the soundsystem.

Island5 is Islandman’s most focused and detailed exploration of Anatolian psychedelia to date. They re-imagine the deep-rooted sounds of Anatolia through a modern lens. To them, this music isn’t frozen in time — it’s alive, shifting, and always becoming. Tradition, in their hands, isn’t something to preserve in glass, but something to carry, stretch, and let grow.
Each track offers a different angle into this reimagined sound. Analog synths mimic reed instruments, fuzzed guitars evoke forgotten tales, and percussion carries both the pulse of the city and the stillness of rural ground. There are meditative passages that invite silence (Slwly), and sunlit grooves that move the body before the mind (Adada, Rüzgar). Everything flows as if improvised—but nothing feels accidental.

This is the story of an artist in search of sound and breath: an artist who dares to question the rhythm of silence—an invitation to rethink music, sound, and musical collaboration. This is the story of a journey that, after opening countless paths, has finally found its vessel—and its messengers. Three artists of profound musical truth and radical freedom, merging into an exceptional trio that crosses genres and transcends words in a journey toward pure emotion.

Le Rythme du Silence is the culmination of this long search. Yom delivers it here with violinist Théo Ceccaldi and cellist Valentin Ceccaldi—kindred spirits in sound. “I’ve been working on this idea of the ‘rhythm of silence’ for years,” Yom explains. “I first heard the phrase from a Sufi master, describing the foundation of meditation. It struck something deep in me. I’ve practiced meditation for a long time, and we often think of it as a kind of stillness—opposed to noise and life. But in truth, the rhythm of silence enables meditation. It means accepting that the world continues to move and live around you, even as you try to be still. I wanted to compose from that place. To imagine sound as vibratory matter—the primal substance of creation. That required letting go of fixed structures: forgetting melodies, abandoning the idea of a constructed solo. I needed to leave behind music as a system, and touch sound as a living, breathing entity. It took years. Many projects led me elsewhere. But with the Ceccaldi brothers, I finally found the right resonance. Working with them was simply obvious—it was indredibly powerful.”

Yom first rose to prominence reimagining Jewish traditional music with his 2008 debut New King of Klezmer Clarinet. Since then, his path has led through rock (With Love, 2011; You Will Never Die, 2018), electronic utopias (The Empire of Love, 2013), meditative and sacred soundscapes (Prière, 2018), and countless unclassifiable hybrids (Unue, 2009; Green Apocalypse, 2010). It was inevitable that he would eventually cross paths with the free-spirited Théo and Valentin Ceccaldi—two artists who also place collaboration and genre-blurring at the heart of their artistic development. Their projects are always bold, demanding, and full of life (Kutu, Tricollectif, ONJ, Velvet Revolution, Grand Orchestre du Tricot, Lagon Noir, Constantine, etc.). And so, when the three met within the iXi string quartet, something clicked.
“I was seated between the two of them in the quartet,” Yom recalls, “and I could feel their energy flowing from both sides—it was wild! They’re so tuned into each other, they don’t need words. It’s like they’re connected by musical Wi-Fi. The groove happens instantly. They’re precise when they want to be—thanks to their experience in pop-influenced projects —but they can also let go completely, diving into pure sound. That’s exactly what this project needed.”

Without a single rehearsal, the trio formed instinctively. They began performing Yom’s compositions live, unfolding them into a single continuous piece, where clarinet and strings stretch the limits of sound and breath.
Bowed, plucked, or prepared with clothespins, the Ceccaldi strings engage in a playful and intense dialogue with Yom’s custom B-flat clarinet. Through their imaginative listening and fearless invention, air and space open into a vast new soundscape—one that lies somewhere between meditation and healing music.

“When Yom shared the concept of the rhythm of silence, we were immediately drawn in,” says cellist Valentin Ceccaldi. “There’s a deep intensity and spiritual commitment in his music that really spoke to me. With this trio, we’re trying to dive into the core of sound—but also to create a kind of communion with the audience. It’s like gradually turning up the volume on silence, and realizing it’s made of countless tiny sounds—the music of particles in motion" This stripped-down intensity demands full presence—body and mind—of these three musicians, vibrationally connected in a state close to trance. With them, we enter a journey - not religious, but sacred nonetheless.
The Rhythm of Silence becomes an echo of our most intimate, most distant inner landscapes.
An album—and a trio—to return to without end.

Among the true Keiji Haino devotees, Nijiumu’s Era of Sad Wings (released on P.S.F. in 1993) has always held a special place in the pantheon. Operating for only a few years in the early 90s and apparently only performing a handful of shows, Nijiumu operated at the opposite end of the dynamic spectrum to Haino’s famed power trio Fushitsusha, dwelling in a hushed, meditative realm of mysterious droning sonorities and free-floating melodies that occasionally erupts into violence. Black Truffle is pleased to announce a new double-LP edition of a lesser-known 1994 Nijiumu recording, When I sing, I slip into the microphone. Into that void, I bring comrade “prayers”, then, turning to face the outside, together we explode. Here, Nijiumu is the trio of Haino, Tetuzi Akiyama and the obscure Takashi Matsuoka, the three performing on a wide variety of string, wind and percussion instruments, as well as electric guitar and bass, and Haino’s unmistakeable voice.

Like on the early solo Haino album that shares the group’s name (released on P.S.F. in 1993), the instrumentation swims in reverb (the use of which Akiyama recalls as ‘a kind of point of the band’), often obscuring the instrumental sources. On the short opening piece, a distant reed instrument arcs long buzzing melodies over a bed of cymbals and gongs, like a psychedelic take on Tibetan music. The epic second part, occupying almost 50 minutes, begins as a splayed, near-formless cloud of electric guitar and bass, shadowed by bowed and plucked strings, the three elements working through twisting atonal shapes. At various points in the recording, we hear what seems to be the sounds of musicians moving between instruments, their shuffling and bumps fitting seamlessly into this radically open music. Eventually, what sounds like electric guitar moves closer to the foreground, fixing on a repeated melodic cell around which hover mysterious clouds of long tones and a sporadic shaker. At the half-hour mark, the music begins to build to a violently emotive climax, Haino’s impassioned vocal cries punctuating a lumbering, bass-heavy murk, contrasted at points by what sounds like a tin whistle. Suddenly, the volume drops to a near-whisper, opening the way for the stunning final moments, which touch on the slow-motion balladry of Haino’s classic Affection, here given an eccentric twist by an occasional woodblock hit. The third piece opens with a hazy trio of rumbling bass, bowed strings and abstracted slide guitar, the latter calling to mind some of Akiyama’s later solo work. Eventually joined by Haino’s voice, its fragile, haunted tone might remind the listener of the man in black’s documented love of the madrigals of the murderous Count Gesualdo, before the recording abruptly breaks off mid-note. In this new edition, the Nijiumu trio recording is supplemented by a piece recorded solo by Haino in 1973, a bracing electronic blowout stretching almost half an hour. Using a homemade electronics setup to unleash a barrage of crunching distortion and shuddering harmonic fuzz, it takes its place in the canon of extreme live electronics next to Robert Ashley’s Wolfman and Walter Marchetti’s Osmanthus fragrans, looking forward to extreme noise years before Merzbow. Taken as a whole, these four sides of music are a stunning document of some of the lesser-known waystations of Haino’s singular creative path.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce Melopea, presenting two new pieces highlighting the incredible voice of Amelia Cuni (1958-2024), the great Italian singer, based in Berlin in later life, whose mastery of the classical Indian dhrupad developed in parallel with a commitment to contemporary experimental approaches. After two stunning archival releases documenting traditional dhrupad performances in India in the 1990s (BT079 and BT092), the two side-long pieces here embody the freedom with which Cuni explored new contexts and settings for her singing.

Both make use of a long recording of Cuni singing the pentatonic Raag Bhoop (or Bhopali) made in 2012 by her partner Werner Durand in Berlin. ‘Melopea’ began from Cuni and Durand’s superimposition of this recording with violinist Silvia Tarozzi and cellist Deborah Walker’s performance of Éliane Radigue’s ‘Occam River II’. Inspired by the beauty of this chance encounter (and other experiments with non-synchronous collaboration during the pandemic years), Tarozzi and Walker recorded independently, without hearing Cuni’s voice but ‘having her present in memory’. Tarozzi and Walker’s bowed strings places Cuni’s magisterial performance in a new context, emphasising, as Radigue commented upon hearing the initial layering of her piece with Cuni’s voice, a shared ‘searching toward the partials, overtones, these natural constituents of acoustical sounds in their richness’. Beginning with whispered bowed harmonics, the violin and cello swap the stability of dhrupad’s traditional tanpura drone for a slowly evolving, uneasy web of harmonic interactions recalling some of Harley Gaber’s work, sometimes sitting on dissonances for long periods or allowing changing interference patterns to come to the fore. Primarily focusing on her lower register, Cuni’s performance demonstrates her mastery of microtonal pitch subtleties, elegant sweeping glissandi and meditatively unhurried pacing.

The continuation of the same recording by Cuni forms the foundation of ‘Bhoop-Murchana’, with Anthea Caddy on cello and Werner Durand on soprano saxophone. In contrast to the randomised layering of the first piece, here Durand and Caddy have carefully selected pitches based on the raag Cuni sings, using the ‘Murchana’ form, which uses the constituent notes of the raag as tonics of new raags, retaining the same interval structure. Both players who have developed tones of striking depth and harmonic purity on their instruments, Caddy and Durand’s patient long tones are simultaneously rigorously grounded in the physical properties of sound and possessed of an immaterial, floating quality. Combined with Cuni’s voice and, near the piece’s end, her contributions on hammered and plucked tanpura, the effect borders on miraculous. To surrender to this music is like slipping into an onsen pool, feeling the instantaneous release of every tension. Accompanied by liner notes from Durand, Tarozzi and Walker, Melopea is both a moving tribute to the profound art of Amelia Cuni and, for the uninitiated, a perfect introduction to it.

Mr. Fiel returns with a new collection of introspective sounds on his own label, Faith In Truth. The release — available soon on vinyl and digitally — marks the imprint’s second vinyl outing, exploring deep house and ambient textures beyond the club floor. Dreamy, meditative and emotionally rich, these tracks invite the listener into a gentle inward journey.

Peaceful mind - a warm deep house journey built on deep bass, soft rhodes, and subtle background chords. Peaceful and immersive – a perfect track to slow down and reflect.
No life without dreams - driven by a heavy bassline and hypnotic synths and congas, this track is mainly made for the dancefloor. A surprising flute outro adds a delicate, uplifting twist to the groove.
Beautiful day - emotional deep house with a nostalgic touch, like flipping through old photographs. Warm textures and soft melodies evoke memories of brighter days.
Into the Galaxy - ambient meets electro in a cosmic exploration of NASA-inspired sounds and samples. A spacious and otherworldly piece – are you ready for a sonic spaceflight?
Eternal sunrise - slow-burning at 110 BPM, this track unfolds with deep basslines, ambient pads, and layered synths. Perfect for quiet moments or watching the sunrise in a reflective state of mind.
Echoes of the divine - thick pads and trippy acid tones collide with slow breakbeats and textured drums. A surreal ride into another dimension – hypnotic and unpredictable.

All tracks were written, produced, and mixed by Mr. Fiel between the summer of 2024 and the spring of 2025.

Iter, Calgolla's latest concept album, is an intense and layered sonic journey into the contradictions of the contemporary human condition.
With a musical language that combines alt-rock, post-rock, post-punk, spoken word and forays into performance art, the group constructs a complex work that defies any simple definition.
The record deals with themes such as migration, inner transformation, social alienation, ecological collapse and a sense of loss, layering lyrics and sounds into a coherent but fragmented narrative, like the time it tells.
The lyrics are taken and adapted from Viaticus, a graphic poem written by the singer together with visual artist Giacomo Della Maria, reshaped to adhere to tense, dense and visionary soundscapes.
The nine tracks of Iter thus form a journey that crosses different languages, styles and moods, like stages of an initiatory path that reflects the precariousness of modern life.
An album that refuses to offer answers, but invites immersion, surrender and transformation through listening. It is a meditative, multi-layered exploration of transformation, perception and resilience in the fragmented reality of modern life. With nine tracks and several languages, Iter (‘journey’ in Latin) traverses internal and geopolitical, sacred and profane landscapes, layering spoken words and sound collages into a deeply expressive experience. The guitars weave textures that are now ethereal and now abrasive, while the rhythm section builds a pulsating framework that supports and amplifies the evocative atmosphere of each piece. Iter does not merely recount the decay of our time, but attempts to bring it to life, immersing the listener in an emotional flow that blurs the boundaries between dream and nightmare, between meditation and chaos. An album that refuses to offer answers, but invites immersion, abandon and transformation through listening.

Past Inside The Present is back with another of its quietly powerful ambient records, this time from Almost An Island, which is a collaboration between Kenneth James Gibson and husband and wife duo James and Cynthia Bernard. This black version of the self-titled oeuvre drifts through ambient, Americana and experimental soundscapes with musical elegance and tasteful restraint. Muted textures, swirling guitar, pedal steel and subtle vocals create a mood that draws you in close but is also grand in scale. Tracks like 'Quadrivium' and 'What Got Us To Our Feet' blur the line between memory and melody, while 'Palo Verde' and 'Promise to Fade' linger like a half-remembered dream. This isn't ambient as background-it's a fully formed emotional landscape that is both meditative and melancholic.

Exos returns to Mutual Rytm for second standout EP, 'Icebreaker'.

A renowned global talent, Iceland's Exos was last on Mutual Rytm earlier this year with his successful 'Infrared' EP in April. The debut release on the label's new 10" vinyl X-Series, the EP picked up a wealth of high-profile plays while delivering an absorbing journey through techno soundscapes. The release was followed up by his 'Evil Nation' LP, exploring a harder, more intense approach to techno on his own Planet X imprint, ext to tunes on the likes of Figure and X/OZ. However, he returns with more skilfully crafted ammunition across five stand-out productions and two digital bonus gems on SHDW's burgeoning imprint for a second outing packed with his trademark sound spanning mystic yet driving and impactful spheres.

The package opens up with 'Voices Of Volcano', a powerful track with a monstrous low end and quickened drum kicks that compel you to march in time as the twisted synths peel away up top. 'Enter The Danger' has a steamy feel, as if racing through a humid jungle with the sounds of bird calls and haunting voices next to the loopy percussion and driving rhythms.

The brilliant 'Icebreaker' keeps up the intensity with more precision drumming working dancers into a meditative state while the cosmic synths grow up out of the groove to become bright and unsettling. 'Mocoa Beats' is another warm techno cut that fizzes with synth energy and unfolds like an ancient ritual, while 'Chicat' brings some sensuality to the party with whispered, intimate vocals over more macho and unrelenting drums. Bonus tracks 'Codebreaker' and 'Spliffmatch' round out this high-grade EP of timeless techno in style, offering a unique closing treat for digital purchasers.

Limited Vinyl Box Set including 6x olive 12” vinyl & download code

Cocoon Recordings presents: Cocoon Compilation V

Back for the summer season, Cocoon Recordings proudly unveils the next chapter in its iconic compilation series. With its 22nd edition, Cocoon Compilation V once again bridges past and future, showcasing the essence of electronic music’s constant evolution. True to the spirit of the label, this handpicked collection delivers a diverse, emotional, and forward-thinking selection that drifts through shimmering currents, pulsating machinery, and moments of pure release.

Delenz & Zeitstill set the tone with “Place To Be”, a smooth and warm opener that invites the listener into a meditative microcosm. What starts as dreamy minimalism steadily unfolds into deep, shimmering depth. A sublime invitation to get lost in sound. Superpitcher takes us further into the mist with “Dream B”, an ethereal and cinematic dreamscape that floats between melancholy and magic. Its stretched textures and hypnotic pacing form a gentle passage into inner space.

The energy intensifies with Patrice Bäumel’s “Nat”, a sophisticated tension-builder with a subtle pulse and haunting atmospheres. Sound waves that breathe, evolve, and subtly command movement. Sawlin switches gears with “Der Jasager”, a deep technoid beast that hits with low-end pressure, modulated percussions, and gritty textures and spooky features. Raw, physical, and unrelenting.

A bright contrast comes from DC Salas and his track “Escapism.” Psychedelic, synth-heavy, and effortlessly groovy, it channels the playful side of electronic storytelling. It channels a trancy 90s flair with its vibrant energy, brilliant use of choir bits, and irresistible vibe that transports you back to a golden era. With Tal Fussman’s “Eyes”, we’re taken into euphoric territory. This stomper is a conversation between piano and strings, rising above crisp grooves, weaving emotion and momentum with finesse.

On the second half of the journey, legendary Ken Ishii teams up with Yuada to deliver “Split Second,” a bold, wild and crazy techno excursion full of mechanical grace and Japanese precision. An ode to organized chaos. Marcel Fengler’s “Aura” follows, powerful and deep, pushing air like an engine through tunnels of tension and light. The blend of rhythm and sentiments is a masterclass in functional elegance and states of mind.

Impérieux brings us “Kala,” a track both twisted and beautiful. Its detuned hypnotic melodies and skewed harmonics are unsettling in the best way while the unconventional rhythms cloak the entire track in a mysterious aura. It creaks and twists toward transcendence, underscored by primordial flute sounds. A fractured lullaby for the club. Joe Metzenmacher injects wildness and attitude into the mix with “Da Freak.” Fuzzy, distorted synths collide with a funky bassline, sharp guitar stabs, and mad bleep effects, bringing the raw groove and dancefloor chaos of a bygone funk era into a futuristic setting.

Joseph Capriati debuts on Cocoon with “Cosmopop” and surprises with an unexpected stylistic shift. Capriati explores a more melodic, emotionally driven sound. Subtle harmonies meet a warm, rolling groove. It’s a bold and personal statement, showing a new side of an artist who continues to evolve beyond expectations. To close, Matthias Schildger offers “Distorter,” a raw and emotional cut that leaves room to breathe while keeping the mind spinning. It begins with beautiful pads, before distorted kicks drop in, yet the track retains a certain tenderness, like the feeling of sitting at a tranquil, untouched nature spot, surrounded by the beauty of the world. A grand finale to a compilation that refuses to settle.

From sunrise moments to peak-time madness, Cocoon Compilation V captures the full spectrum of what dance music can be. Transcendent, visceral and endlessly evolving. This isn’t just a collection of tracks. It’s a curated experience for the body, the mind and the soul.

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Spilla, the second album from Nantes-based Ensemble Nist-Nah, 48 minutes of music for Gamelan, drum kits, wood and metal percussion instruments, and plucked strings that will surely count as one of the most electrifying records you hear this year. Founded by the Australian drummer/percussionist Will Guthrie in 2019, continuing the explorations begun in solo form on Nist-Nah (Black Truffle, 2020), the ensemble (eight or nine core members with occasional guests) has been consistently active in the half-decade since: composing, rehearsing, recording and touring Europe (with a mass of equipment in tow) to great acclaim. Spilla tracks the continuing evolution of the project since the recording of their first album, Elders (Black Truffle, 2022). The two sides of this record document two different iterations of the group, and the members' compositional input has increased: each side contains one piece by a member other than Guthrie. It has become clearer than ever that Ensemble Nist-Nah is not an attempt at a European Gamelan ensemble but rather a hybrid percussion ensemble that uses instruments from a Javanese Gamelan alongside other percussion to perform original music informed by a variety of South East Asian music but also by everything from free jazz to contemporary hip-hop: while Nist-Nah and Elders both featured traditional Javanese pieces, on Spilla the only tune not generated by a member of the group is by Guthrie’s long-time musical hero and occasional collaborator Roscoe Mitchell.

The two short pieces that open the record could almost be the two sides of a wild 7” selected to show off what the Ensemble can do. On opener ‘Gerak Maju’, intricately skittering open-snare patterns bounce over clanging metal, chiming bell-like tones and deep gong hits, adapting the rhythm-register connections heard in traditional Gamelan musics—where the lowest pitched sounds are heard least frequently—to a cut-up breakbeat straight off Feed Me Weird Things. ‘Strollabout’ then moves into an entirely different realm of meditative repeating patterns, performed entirely on Chinese, Javanese and Vietnamese gongs. The remaining seven pieces, ranging from three to twelve minutes, offer up a wealth of different percussive, compositional and arrangement possibilities. On ‘Ghostly Klang’, two drumkits mirror each other’s moves, bouncing hats and snares across the stereo field in a way that recalls On the Corner and the jittering hi hat patterns of trap, while slow moving melodies on the tuned instruments add a sense of majesty contrasted by scurrying details in resonant wood. The epic closing track presents a take on Roscoe Mitchell’s ‘Uncle’, performed by the Art Ensemble of Chicago on their classic Urban Bushmen live album. Where the Art Ensemble used Mitchell’s dirge-like melody as a jumping off point for virtuosic improvisational flights, Ensemble Nist-Nah rethink the piece as a near-static dialogue between the monumental, slow-moving sequence of unison tuned percussion notes and a textural cloud that grows in richness and intensity from whispering cymbal rolls into a mass of gong overtones and bowed metal.

Beautifully recorded and mixed, Spilla arrives in a sleeve decorated with core member Charles Dubois’ drawings of cymbals and gongs. Against the backdrop of a wider musical landscape dominated by over-produced electronic slop and bland harmonic wallpaper, Ensemble Nist-Nah stands out as a reminder, vital and unpretentious, of the joys and possibilities of human beings playing instruments together.

Le Chatroom, a record label established in 2016 by the English producer Kouslin, searches for the missing link between underground bass music and outer national sounds. Its music is defined by the blend of synthetic and organic tones, modern / classic instruments and low- end heavy percussive rhythms.

Pushing artists from all around the globe that share the same love for this newfound sound, Kouslin's aim with Le Chatroom is to promote musical diversity, open-mindedness and experimentation at a time when unity between cultures is crucial. With 'LCR001' the label advances into a new physical environment from which this release should be experienced.

Real talk and native percussion establish the steady climax of 'Brothers', the A-side of Le Chatroom's inaugural wax release. Kouslin cuts through this sediment with a bright flute, before the state of the sound switches into something far darker and meditative. By placing several samples at irregular intervals, the Londoner achieves a fascinating charm that'll unite us all.

Booming bass in 'Gyals' lingers with a steady pace while percy tribal hits forge a raw groove that's far from common. With this movement, the producer from Bristol disintegrates the sense of a generic production and sticks to his true nature. Through this it becomes clear that Galtier has his polyrhythms down to a science.

Londoner Sheik clinches the B-side with a craze that unveils a nearly psychotic sense of sample architecture. Pushing crystal clear 808 kicks in- between the haunting atmospheres and a wall of pressure simply becomes one of his most inventive takes documented on wax. If you love to swerve through a minefield, the odd 'Oxram' would be your favourite pick off this first outline.

The three producers that feature on 'LCR001' pass on their fundamentals to conjure Le Chatroom's philosophy red-handed. Together they do the imprint's name justice by handing over critical bass repertoire that'll excite many!

Selekt Sounds proudly launches its vinyl-only imprint Selekt Wax with an evocative EP from Dragomir, one of Bucharest’s most prominent voices in minimal. Deeply introspective yet effortlessly hypnotic, this record is a meditation on space, tension, and the emotional resonance of stripped down groove. Each track pulses with a quiet intensity—crafted with care, driven by instinct, and tuned to the inner ear.

Etched on the sleeve, a poem sets the tone:

the space between the sounds
expansion and contraction
allow what comes up to flow
ebb like the ocean waves
keeping in time with the synchrony
manipulating sound waves
helps navigate the now
can you hear yourself between the sound?
in the space between.

Much like the words that frame it, this release invites listeners to tune in—not just to the music, but to the stillness it surrounds.

A1 Trust - A hypnotic minimal roller built around a looping vocal mantra, jazzy percussive details, and swirling psychedelic textures. Subtle yet immersive, it invites deep focus and surrender.

A2 Mirroring - Moody, meditative, and rich in detail, Mirroring unfolds through broken rhythms and shadowy textures—perfect for reflective moments on or off the dancefloor.

B1 Irresolute - With a steady 4x4 pulse and airy, emotional pads, Irresolute balances tension and release in a way that feels both uplifting and unresolved. A track for when the night blurs into morning.

An immersive long-form composition in two parts that seamlessly blends a collage of spoken word, field recordings and drones with elements of dub, jazz, fourth world and ambient music.

Son Of Chi is the latest project of Rotterdam-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Hanyo van Oosterom. Van Oosterom’s prolific career spans multiple decades and genres; among countless projects he has been involved in, he is known for founding the Dutch ambient collective CHI in the early eighties, and in recent years for his prolific collaboration with CHI co-founder Jacobus Derwort as Chi Factory. Following Derwort’s passing in 2019, van Oosterom decided to close the CHI circle with the birth of Son Of Chi.

Sonically, the world of ‘We Carry Eden’ is fully immersive; it ripples with depth and shimmers in detail. Motifs, ideas and fragments, arise and disappear like passing thoughts, drawing the listener deeper and deeper inwards. For those familiar with Oosterom’s work as Chi Factory, the depth and meditative nature of the work will come as no surprise; however it is Oosterom’s skill with grooves that shines equally bright here; his infectiously dubby basslines and percussion rise up from the ether, grounding the listener to the earth. ‘We Carry Eden’ at times invokes the fourth world landscapes of Jon Hassell, (with whom Oosterom has collaborated) but as a whole, it remains the unique work of an artist fully in tune with their vision.

Thematically, storytelling traditions lie at the heart of ‘We Carry Eden’, with van Oosterom’s long-time collaborator Omar Ka playing a central role. Ka, who hails from the West African nomadic Fulani tradition of storytelling, responds to the collage of field recordings and sounds collected by Oosterom. His voice is woven throughout ‘We Carry Eden’, creating a narrative that binds the multiple sound sources of the album together.

As with much of van Oosterom’s musical output, inspiration is drawn from the Greek Island of Patmos and the wisdom and prophecies of the Native American Hopi Tribe. Since his work with CHI in the early eighties, van Oosterom has often incorporated quotes from Hopi Elders into his music. Gods, spirits, animals and humans, all existing in one unchangeable relationship tied to nature; ‘We Carry Eden’ is rooted in this philosophy, serving as a peaceful message of beauty, harmony and respect for the wisdom of the Elders and ancient traditions.

Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.

Mr Bongo proudly presents an official reissue of an iconic, exploratory album by Indian maestro of the sitar, Ananda Shankar, aptly titled 'Ananda Shankar And His Music'.

Released on His Master's Voice in 1976, the album is a sublime collage of sitar-funk, traditional Indian classical music and psychedelic grooves, from the Indian sitarist, composer and musician. Nephew to India’s legendary sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, Ananda’s musical family and upbringing led to a deep respect and love of the wealth of music that emanated from his birthplace. His travels to the west coast of America in the late ‘60s though, saw Shankar immersed in the full swing of psychedelic rock. The collision of these two musical worlds with a whole range of other Eastern and Western influences on 'Ananda Shankar And His Music', is a truly entrancing combination.

First big in the UK in the mid-‘90s jazz/rare groove club scene, when it was unearthed by adventurous DJs and crate diggers, the sensational Indian-funk tracks 'Streets Of Calcutta' and 'Dancing Drums' became firm dancefloor favourites. The mixture of drum-heavy funk with Indian music and psychedelia is the perfect melting pot. Flavourful and balanced, it still feels fresh and exciting 40 years on.

Like a fine wine, this album keeps getting better with age and once-overlooked tracks are now seen in a new light. Aside from the main 'club' cuts that many have praised and loved, 'The River' is a part blissed-out, Balearic gem, part cosmic wild west soundtrack, that would provide the perfect complement to any sunset session. Elsewhere, 'Dawn' is a spiritual and meditative journey into Indian classical music, with ‘Cyrus’ floating you away to heavenly heights. On a different tip, 'Back Home' fuses styles and themes via an organ and Moog-infused, tripped-out excursion, whilst 'Renunciation' hits with a psych-rock sentiment to its sitar-soaked grooves.

A beautiful time capsule of Eastern culture meets Western influence, where experimentation and intrigue produced a fusion of sounds that still sound as vibrant and alluring as they have ever been.

The album’s title deftly gestures to the sheer vastness of astronomical dimensions, while simultaneously capturing the musical breadth within, where the eight planets are imagined as the eight notes of an octave. The work draws inspiration not only from earlier compositions —most notably Gustav Holst’s The Planets—but also from the rich astronomical and cultural contexts surrounding these celestial bodies. Here, the focus transcends direct citation of melodic motifs, instead embracing an intriguing conceptual approach on a meta level, unfolding in a series of vividly contrasting soundscapes. These contrasts shape a sweeping sonic journey, one that fully embraces the album format with both arms, inviting the listener to venture into realms both strange and wondrous, feeling the immensity of the interstellar space that lies between them. Contrast, after all, is the brushstroke that enriches our world.

Embarking on an auditory voyage, "Astral Guide" establishes the sonic framework that propels us into the boundless expanses of the cosmos. Its ethereal tones evoke the vastness of space, crafting a mood ripe for exploration within the realms of sci-fi. The subsequent tracks unfold like constellations, weaving a rich tapestry of sound that seamlessly marries cinematic soundscapes with pulsating, club-oriented rhythms. This album invites listeners to traverse its immersive landscapes, whether nestled in the comfort of home or dancing under the starlit sky, each note a guide through the transcendent experience of a nocturnal journey.

"Solar Flares" draws its inspiration from the awe-inspiring expanse of solar phenomena, capturing the majestic power of the sun as it reaches into the cosmos. This track resonates with the idea that energy, while vital, can also be a force of destruction when unleashed with overwhelming intensity. The composition beautifully mirrors the sun’s duality, where brilliance and devastation coexist, inviting listeners to reflect on the delicate balance between creation and annihilation. Through its rich textures and dynamic shifts, "Solar Flares" serves as both a homage to the celestial and a poignant reminder of nature's formidable power.

"Mercury – The Winged Messenger" embodies a meticulously crafted soundscape where artistry meets astronomy. The tempo of 173.6 BPM, derived from precise astronomical data, propels the composition into a vibrant realm that resonates with cosmic energy. Synthwave sound design intertwines seamlessly with the fluid rhythms of Drum’n’Bass, imbuing the piece with an uplifting dynamism that evokes the ethereal grace of Mercury itself. In this sonic exploration, listeners are invited to ascend on wings of sound, navigating the celestial tapestry of the universe with each invigorating beat.

"Venus, The Bringer of Peace" strikes a decidedly cozy note, presenting a poignant contrast to the more tempestuous themes often found in cosmic narratives. This composition evokes a nostalgic vision of an optimistic era, one in which humanity transcended borders and embraced the infinite possibilities of space exploration, where no destination felt too distant. The dense, languid atmosphere envelops the listener, creating a tangible sense of serenity that unfolds gradually, allowing for a meditative journey through sound. Each note serves as an invitation to linger in this tranquil embrace, reflecting on the harmonious potential of our collective aspirations and the beauty of connection in a vast universe.

The central theme of „Gaia, The Bringer of Life“ —originally not part of the planetary cycle— is the profound enabler of life on Earth. The arrangement delicately mirrors the slow, tentative unfolding of this potential, marked by an initially sparse orchestration that gradually builds in momentum. This progression crescendos, embodying the explosive dynamism of the Cambrian burst of life, ultimately culminating in a euphoric fanfare—a triumphant, celebratory flourish echoing life’s victorious emergence.

"Blue Moon" unfolds as a contemplative reverie on the tranquil clarity of a night sky, now seldom glimpsed in its natural purity, unclouded by the relentless haze of urban light. The listener is drawn into the vast embrace of the star-strewn firmament, a journey that sways between euphoric awe at nature’s sublime beauty and a profound melancholy for its fragile and imperiled state. Musically, this duality finds expression in the delicate interplay of modal mixtures, while an ever-shifting triplet groove, poised at the intersection of Outrun and melodic house, lends a pulse that is both nostalgic and forward-looking—echoing the beauty and transience of a world on the brink.

Rather than replicating the original composition of „Mars, The Bringer of War“, this interpretation seeks to evoke its profound, foreboding atmosphere. Cyberpunk emerges here as an ideal genre, channeling the dark, relentless march synonymous with Mars, the ancient god of war. The piece reverberates with intensity, as distorted vocalizations rise, embodying the anguish and visceral torment that shadow war’s violent crescendo. This auditory descent into conflict captures the relentless pulse of warfare, where sound itself becomes an embodiment of suffering and fury.

Majestically, "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity" emerges on the celestial stage, sweeping away the somber tones with its radiant vigor. Drawing inspiration from the triumphant strains of the original, and borrowing a melodic motif in the refrain, the piece expresses joy and buoyancy through a shift to a major key and the lilting sway of a danceable 12/8 meter. Spirited and exuberant, it leaps boldly from major to minor and back again, playfully shifting time signatures to capture a mood of unbridled festivity and jollity.

Here, a more conciliatory concept is chosen than in the original inspiration. „Saturn“ aligns with the number six, being the sixth planet from the Sun and bearing the iconic hexagonal pattern at its northern pole. What, then, could be more fitting than to render this piece in a 6/8 time signature? The arrangement unfolds with a multifaceted richness, mirroring the countless stones and ice fragments that form the foundations of Saturn’s majestic rings.

„Uranus“ adopts the theme of a light-footed, dancing instrumentation, giving the impression of perpetual motion, never quite settling. This musical choice harmonizes with the planet’s own orbit, as it spins with breathtaking velocity, teetering and swaying, seemingly unable to attain rest or stability.

The chill and vastness of the cosmos find expression in „Neptune, The Mystic“. At its core, an electronic soundscape envelops a classical arrangement, its unreachability intensified by an ethereal, otherworldly choir. Hovering at the outermost boundaries of the solar system, where warmth is but a distant memory, the composition lingers in a slow, contemplative tempo, evoking a realm where space for speculation stretches wide and silence reigns supreme.

Though Pluto may have lost its planetary status, and its companion Charon never achieved one, this shift in classification subtly aligns with the cosmic scale invoked here—one that mirrors the musical tradition of an eight-note sequence. Fittingly, the album closes with „Kuiper Belt“, a composition emblematic of the turbulence and vitality of countless smaller

celestial bodies that, though diminutive, find their rightful place within the vast architecture of the solar system.

They say nature is the greatest composer, shaping the universe with a symphony of chaos and order, beauty and danger. It is this duality that fuels the artistic vision of Edictum—a producer who, armed with a doctorate in chemistry, delves as deeply into the mysteries of molecules as he does into the depths of sound. In the tension between the vastness of the cosmos and the microscopic processes that dictate life’s rhythm, Edictum creates sonic landscapes that dissolve the boundaries between science and art.

His music is a story of contrasts—a sonic tale where the raw forces of nature clash with the intricate structures of human culture. Opposites intertwine to form a harmonious whole: the primal rhythms of the earth meet the celestial melodies of the cosmos, the rigid laws of physics blend with the boundless freedom of art. Edictum explores these polarities with meticulous devotion, each composition an expedition into uncharted soundscapes—a quest to give voice to the unfathomable.

With over 20 years immersed in the realms of electronic music, Edictum has honed a keen sense for rhythm and movement. His driving beats compel both body and mind into a hypnotic flow. Yet beyond the pulse of dance lies a complex framework of conceptual thought. Today, his creative focus revolves around holistic album projects—self-contained worlds with overarching narratives that embrace contrast and complexity. Each track stands alone as a fragment of the whole, but together, they weave a cohesive tapestry, much like the chapters of a novel that guide the listener on an emotional and sonic journey.

Edictum’s distinctive musical signature has earned him international recognition. With over 150 releases, many on prestigious platforms like the iconic *NewRetroWave* label, and collaborations with artists such as Jan Johnston, Azumi Inoue, Powernerd, and Turbo Knight, he has solidified his place in the global electronic music scene. His latest work, *A Cosmic Scale*, marks his seventh vinyl album and is released under his own label, *Echoes of Expanse*. The label’s name is no coincidence—it captures the essence of his art: echoes of infinity, the vibrations of the universe distilled into a singular sonic experience that carries the listener ever further into the boundless expanse of sound and space.

This new one from our favourite US ambient outlet takes the form of a selection of long-form compositions from artists who are close to the label. As such it's a perfect reflection of its signature sound - deeply immersive soundscapes, slowly shifting synths and meditative moods made with a mix of hardware tools, guitars, pedals and even baritone vocals. It's named after a Norwegian term for warmth and intimacy, which certainly plays out from the evolving loops of 'A Whisper' to the textured melancholy of 'Canaan' and the reverberant drift of 'Coronation Ring'.

Repress!

Techno phenomenon Charlotte de Witte today announces her brand-new EP “Power Of Thought”, out October 19 on her own KNTXT label. The trio begins with the title track “Power Of Thought” - which immediately erupts into a hypnotic techno beat interspersed with spoken mantras of mindfulness. This is followed by “Pria”, a pulsating journey featuring hypnotic, mantra-like vocals. The EP ends with ambient track “Abada”, punctuated with the occasional drum and chanting vocals before it quickly strips away to silence.

“For ‘Power Of Thought’, I wanted to create an EP that touches deeper emotions and captivating the meditative trance you have when you let go on the dance floor,” says de Witte. “‘Pria’ has already brought me a lot of joy over the last few months when I have played it during my sets. It offers a moment of reflection and a chance to catch your breath during the rougher, more peak time tracks I play. ‘Abada’ is a track that I really enjoyed making. I discovered these magical chanting vocals and I just knew I wanted to use them in a track. Though this track is maybe less playable in one of my sets, I feel that Abada found its home on this EP and completes the ‘Power Of Thought’ circle.”

Best known for her “dark and stripped-back” brand of techno and crossover to other sounds of the underground, Charlotte de Witte pushes the boundaries of the electronic genre with music that has a distinct and unforgettable sound that is uniquely her own. De Witte’s innovative ability allows her to seamlessly blend genres and styles that
have won her a dedicated fan base and critical acclaim.

“Power Of Thought” is the followup EP to de Witte’s “Overdrive” EP, campaign and tour, which recently wrapped with a Los Angeles takeover last month and included performances at Brooklyn Mirage, Primavera Sound, Rock Werchter, Super Bock Super Rock, Lowlands and Rock En Seine. The “Power Of Thought” release will include an exclusive apparel drop as well and will coincide with the opening day of KNTXT Turbo Club, de Witte’s epic 3-day pop-up event series taking over Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) from October 19 - 21, 2023.

With a different “KNTXT” each day, the turbo-charged pop-up will feature a massive lineup of performances, a dedicated KNTXT shop, immersive music experiences and other surprises at an undisclosed location in Amsterdam. Capacity will be very limited and tickets can be purchased now at https://kntxt.be/events/ade.

Following ADE, de Witte will embark upon the KNTXT Latin America Tour on October 26, which will take her to Mexico City, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.

Globetrotting Texan trio Khruangbin are set to release ‘Hasta El Cielo’, the band’s glorious dub version of their second album ‘Con Todo El Mundo’. The full album has been processed anew along with two bonus dubs by renowned Jamaican producer Scientist.

The band’s exotic, spacious, psychedelic funk aligns with the dub treatment particularly well. Indeed, keen fans won’t fnd this a surprising release. Dubs of tracks from their frst album ‘The Universe Smiles Upon You’ appeared on limited vinyl releases of ‘People Everywhere’ for Record Store Day 2016 and ‘Zionsville’ on the Boogie Futuro remix 12”. The especially eagle-eared willhave caught a dub of ‘Two Fish And An Elephant’ playing over the credits of the track’s celebrated video.

“For us, Dub has always felt like a prayer. Spacious, meditative, able to transport the listener to another realm. The frst dub albums we listened to were records mixed by Scientist featuring the music of the Rootsb Radics. Laura Lee learned to play bass by listening to Scientist Wins the World Cup. His unique mixing style, with the emphasis on space and texture, creates the feeling of frozen time; it was hugely influential to us as a band. To be able to work alongside Scientist, a legend in the history of dub, is an honor. This is our dub version of Con Todo El Mundo.”- Khruangbin.

Formed of Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald “DJ” Johnson on drums; Khruangbin’s sounds are rooted in the deepest waters of music from around the world, infused with classic soul, dub and psychedelia. Their 2015 debut album ‘The Universe Smiles Upon You’ was heavily influenced by 60’s and 70’s Thai cassettes the band listened to on their long car journeys to rehearsal in the Texan countryside. 2018’s follow up ‘Con Todo El Mundo’, which received hugely positive critical reactions and radio play around the world, took inspiration not just from South East Asia but similarly underdiscovered funk and soul of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, particularly Iran.

Since the album’s release, the band have continued their almost non-stop approach to touring, playing over 130 dates in 2018 alone. They return to the UK this summer for festival shows at Green Man, Latitude, Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul Festival and Barclaycard British Summer Time.

Nitechord is an anonymous "ambient-tech duo" that impresses with this fine debut, Lume, which is a meditative exploration of the calmness and mystery of the night as distilled through mid-tempo rhythms and atmospheric whispers. These sounds were first submitted as a raw, uncredited cassette demo in 2002 and have hardly been changed from that state but for the mastering. Tracks like 'Reflect' and 'Near' blend shimmering guitar loops, sub-bass and subtle twangs over dancefloor beats. 'Dim' breathes with layered drones, while 'Absent' offers mournful serenity and last but not least, 'Carry' blossoms into orchestral harmony. A sublime soundscape.

We're back with another heavy release for the soundsystems.

This time we welcome Boomarm Nations own Gulls to the label.
Hailing from his dojo in Portland, Oregon, Gulls delivers us a
meditative dub hybrid, combining elements of dub, hip hop and contemporary electronica. The tune is called ''So Blessed'' and is topped by the fine voice of Wayne Daniel outta Kingston, Jamaica.

''So Blessed'' got exactly the vibe you'll need in this challenging time. Keep your head up, feel gifted for what you've got and give something back to the people around you. This tune's backing you up.

If that wasn't enough, the Portland rapper Madgesdiq steps pon the mic for some blazin' bars in his signature conscious style.

Get lost in this wicked production while heading right into the dub version to exceed the border between music and meditation.

To feel the sound through your body and soul, LXC lifted the frequencies again.

As the tenth candle flickers atop the torta alla panna, Archeo Recordings play the Uno reverse card, breaking with tradition to give us a gift in celebration of its birthday: the first in a series of exquisite EPs on which the label's favourite contemporaries pay homage to past masters. Each re-polished gem is plucked either directly from the beatific back catalogue of the fine Florentine label or is at least Archeo-adjacent, perhaps a sign of future wonders to come. Like a musical version of Janus, who can be found at the heart of Bertoldo di Giovanni's frieze in the Medici villa, Archeo Recordings will continue to look forwards and backwards to provide sublime sounds for us all.
Pepe Maina officially joined the Archeo family in 2019 with the much-needed reissue of his 1979 masterpiece Scerizza (AR015), but his astounding music has been a constant companion to label head Manu for much longer. An inter-dimensional, multi-instrumental maverick, Maina weaves the frayed edges of prog rock, new age, organic jazz and global minimalism into a shimmering tapestry all of his own. The results are spread across fifty years and almost as many albums, largely self-released and always absolutely untarnished by commercial concerns.
Based in a small village in the hills of Brianza, just north of Milan, Maina translates the beauty of his surroundings into transformative tone poems, and the folkloric fusion of "The Infinite", originally released on his 2014 CD Tales From The Hill, is the perfect example of his practice. It opens with a recitation of Giacomo Leopardi's 1825s poem "L'Infinito" by famed Italian actor Vittorio Gassman. A leading figure in the romantic movement, Leopardi explores the idea of time and space within the natural world, and the peace that comes with an appreciation of the immensity of eternity. Manu, longtime digger and now a burgeoning producer, expands upon the original with tribal percussion, chirping electronics and a spheric bassline, folding Maina's elegant strings and gossamer pads into a new arrangement suited for a slow dance under the stars.
Unless you had a well-trained ear tuned to Italy's avant-jazz scene, chances are your first encounter with innovative flautist Roberto Aglieri came via the 2017 Archeo reissue of hisalmost untraceable LP Ragapadani (AR011). It's a true testament to Manu's digging credentials that he snatched this masterpiece out of the esoteric atmosphere and brought it attention it so richly deserved. A delicate union of digital synthesis and versatile flute - be it soft and silvery or
brilliant and clear - the 1987 album was a shapeshifting masterpiece, replaying scenes from Virgil, Verdi, Visconti and Pasolini with a neon glow. Quintessentially Italian, but uncanny and previously unimagined - Penthouse and Portico perhaps. Powered by a percolating prototechno sequence, cascading keys, hallucinogenic vocal snippets and a variety of tonal timbres from Roberto's reed, "Danza N. 1" long deserved the praise reserved for Jean-Luc Ponty's pinnacle, so many thanks to Manu for our collective introduction. The tall task of reinterpreting this particular paragon falls to Perugian polymath Daniele Tomassini AKA Feel Fly, whose peerless skills as both producer and musician have delighted DJs and dancers alike. Hot on the heels of his diverse and definitive remixes of Tony Esposito for AR027, Daniele delivers a radical rework of "Danza N. 1" perfect for both day rave sunshine and full moon party alike. Enhanced by snapping breaks and a rattling kick, the bassline gurgle emerges as a progressive powerhouse, laying the foundation for the trilling flute and circular keys to cast a psychedelic spell. As the slow-Goa revival picks up pace, this one is way ahead of the pack.
Archeo take us all the way back to the start of its story here - well almost. Though it bore the stamp AR001 (2015), this Radio Band reissue actually hit shelves months after Tony Esposito's "Je-Na' / Pagaia"; a false start perhaps but a true classic all the same. Radio Band were a group of DJs from Florence who all sailed the airways of Radio Fantasy in 1984 and whose one and only release was this super groovy slice of Italo-boogie. Following the example of Milanese DJs Band of Jocks but far surpassing their formulaic funk fizzle, Radio Band employed an intergalactic bassline, cosmic keys and that undeniably Italian style of rapping to deliver a sophisticated party-starter which even found its way to disco deity Ron Hardy. Back to the here and now, and if you've found yourself pumping an ecstatic fist to a supercharged Italian epic of late, chances are its from the mind of the mysterious Radiomarc. Operating on the ascendent Popcorn Groove imprint, this shadowy figure steers his country's lost classics into peaktime territories, finding a sweet spot between late Italo-disco, early Italo-house and contemporary cool. Pushing the tempo with a club-ready 4/4, setting the sequencer to stun and supplementing the original melodies with a series of synth riffs, the mystery producer send this one into orbit. Radio Band - Radio Rap - Radiomarc, the circle is complete.
Few have done more to develop cross-cultural musical exchange than Futuro Antico. A collaborative venture from musician, archeologist and ethnomusicologist Walter Maioli, keyboardist and tonal theoretician Riccardo Sinigaglia and multi-disciplinary artist and composer Gabin Dabiré, Futuro Antico formed in Milan in 1979, combining ancient international folkloric traditions with otherworldly electronics. The result is an arresting melange of Mediterranean, African and Asian instrumentation, mimicked by esoteric synth tones and hypnotic minimalism, which the group perfected on their acclaimed 1990 LP Dai Primitivi All'Elettronica. The meditative and transportive "Pan Tuning" belongs to their largely overlooked 2005 CD only release Intonazioni Archetipe, and has been amongst Manu's most loved tracks from the first moment he heard it. Who else is better placed to reshape this evocative opus into an immersive, transcendental dance floor journey than label favourites Mushrooms Project? The duo sows the original elements into a sprawling fifteen minute fusion of séance and science, at times propulsive with a ritualist rhythm of tuned percussion and crunching drum machine at others drifting off into ethereal ambience. Mushrooms Project continue to push the boundaries of the Afro-cosmic style, and this remix marks a new zenith.

Parsley Sounds was the glorious debut album for Mo Wax by Parsley Sound. The album was one of the iconic label’s final releases before it closed in 2003 and locating a clean copy has been extremely tricky of late, unless you're flush enough to drop 150 notes on it. Mercifully, the Be With reissue, put together with invaluable assistance from the group, should remedy this situation. It's a lo-fi, bass-heavy, blunted beat treat, warped with heat haze and dreamy soft-psych and has been criminally under-heard for far too long.

As with most cult-like records, Parsley Sounds has many influential fans, far and wide. From Four Tet and Caribou to NTS's modern day breakfast hero Flo Dill, its reputation has only grown in stature. At the time, the notoriously hard-to-please Pitchfork garlanded it with a scarcely achievable 8.8 whilst, just recently, the Numero Group's Rob Sevier described it as a "visionary bit of proto-Salvia Palth (or Steve Lacy)" via a Ghostly International missive.

Parsley Sound comprised super-talented duo Preston Mead and Dan Sargassa. They released an early single (the perfect "Twilight Mushrooms", featured here) on Warp Records as Slum, before signing to Mo Wax. Hidden behind a wall of sound - fuzzy layers of beats, bleeps and symphonic synths - they were convinced they made mainstream pop music. And, in many respects, Parsley Sounds really is a beautiful pop album. It overflows with memorable, gorgeous melodies and inspired songcraft. As the contemporaneous Pitchfork review correctly had it: "Parsley Sounds is one of those rare records that manage to sound modest while frequently pushing the sonic envelope."

Killer opener "Ease Yourself And Glide" is a thing of aching, soft-psych, wonky beat-beauty. A melodic masterpiece, part Crosby, Stills & Nash, part proto-Koushik, it presents a melancholy falsetto, surging bass and blunted lead guitar. As it climaxes, gorgeous strings are ushered in to see us out. Sublime. "Twilight Mushrooms" is up next and it's an acid-drenched, strung-out acoustic-led campfire wonder. Amid layers of tape-hiss and beautiful, sun-dappled strings, its understated vocal track provides a haze of wistful innocence.

The breezy "Spring's Near" is a krautrock-inspired chiming instrumental of heavenly excellence, its warm, skipping, motorik groove and dreamy synths completely infectious. Another total highlight, the technicolour "Yo Yo" initially presents itself as a more abstract, bleepy offering but as it organically swells into ever more beautiful places, with the addition of a choppy insistent drum loop, flute bursts, horns and sweeping strings, it puts one in mind of early Manitoba and Four Tet releases. Shimmering, blissed-out greatness.

The celestial harmonies and glistening harps of the wonderfully beatless, serenely sullen "Ocean House" are very much in conversation with late-60s meditative psych whilst, closing out Side A, the jaw-dropping, lushly experimental effort "Find The Heat" comes on like Arthur Russell meets Brian Wilson. Yep, *that* good.

Side B opens with the warped, bleepy "Stevie", a brief but beautifully wonky, soulful and intricate instrumental. The more upfront vocals that propel the fuzzy "Platonic Rate" have a refreshing swagger to them, the heavy bass and neck-snapping in-the-red beats too much for any system to deal with whilst the guitars and strings have a sweeping, cinematic feel which just beguiles. The slow, urbane soul of "Candlemice" will stop you in your tracks, no matter what you're doing. It carries a delicate sadness, as does much of the album in that classic "down lifting" style we so love here at Be With.

The fuzzing, buzzing "Templechurchmansions" is a searing, soulful dubwise detonation. Heavily stoned with slow-burning jazzy snatches and a tense, moody atmosphere, it's a Tricky-adjacent gem. The album rounds out brilliantly with the ominous instrumental "Neon Breeze" before giving way to the propulsive, almost incongruous punk-funk / disco-dub of secret "untitled" track "Caution", a scratchy, smacked-out groove-fuelled workout with a female vocal dripping with 'tude. Just sensational.

Under the watchful eye - and attentive ears! - of Parsley Sound themselves, the audio for Parsley Sounds has been carefully mastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, with a few much needed tweaks here and there, according to the artist's wishes. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at the always stellar Record Industry in Holland.

Preston and Dan always thought the colours on the first vinyl pressing looked a bit "washed out" vis-a-vis the original artwork which was way more vibrant. We feel we've got it popping back to the original intention with the restoration work here at Be With HQ. So with the audio and artwork now approaching completeness after 20 years, this long overdue re-issue could be considered its definitive vinyl release.

2024 Reissue

Two dubstep veterans unite, Nomine & Youngsta join forces for Sentry Records latest release. ‘Ascension’ is a collection of different styles & energies spanning 140bpm. From the Dub influences of ‘Courage’ & ‘Foundations’, the meditative soundscapes on ‘So Within’ featuring Anima and ‘Hidden’ featuring Lelijveld through to the darker dance floor leaning sounds of ‘Journey’. The LP showcases the pairs versatility & spectrum of influences. Featuring an array of new & returning talents including Breezy Lee, Zameen-A & Lelijveld.

After solidifying its presence in the electronic music scene, 'Anva' returns with its fourth release, featuring a collaborative effort from Tagir & Indigo Minds. Meditation Dance EP explores the balance between minimal house and tech house, offering four original tracks that traverse atmospheric soundscapes and punchy rhythms.

'Meditation Dance' opens the EP with a deep, rolling bassline that gradually unfolds into a hypnotic groove. Layered with subtle textures and rhythmic nuances, it invites dancers into a meditative state while keeping the energy moving forward. 'Bandit' shifts the momentum with tighter percussion and playful melodic accents, creating a steady groove that’s both engaging and dynamic.

On the B-side, 'Donut' introduces intricate sound design and spaced-out synth work, maintaining a relaxed yet detailed rhythm that adds depth to any set. Closing out the release, 'Jack' brings a bouncy and upbeat vibe, with sharp beats and a syncopated groove that injects playful energy into the dancefloor.

The Meditation Dance EP offers a versatile selection of tracks, perfect for DJs who seek to mix minimal precision with engaging rhythmic flow.

Dual Dimension EP marks a milestone for Fides Records releasing its 20th entry in the main catalog. This split EP features labelhead Z.I.P.P.O and eclectic duo Tapefeed, each contributing two tracks to create a unique blend of sounds that capture the essence of techno. 

Side A opens with Tapefeed's "Hellz Bellz" a percussive workout that delivers stripped-down, peak-time energy, perfect for driving dance floors into a frenzy. Following "Surge of Hope" takes listeners on an evolving journey, starting deep and gradually transforming into an energetic yet meditative composition.

On Side B, Z.I.P.P.O's "Satara" stands out as a 909-based techno gem. Its mind-twisting sound design, rolling lead, and mental bleeps take you on a profound auditory voyage, rich with depth and complexity. The Side B concludes with "The Strange Door" a deep techno track that combines tribal rhythms with atmospheric depth.

Jean-Phi Dary's much-anticipated *MIND* project gets its first release with the *For Peace Remixes EP*. The record is set for release on September 20, 2024, via Comet Records. Featuring the extraordinary talents of French producer *I:Cube*, who brings his extensive expertise in the electronic scene to reinterpret Dary's original MIND compositions in his own unique way.
The record opens with a masterful blend of rhythmic precision and electronic depth, infused with Dary's signature style with a mindful, meditative quality. This 3-tracker delivers a dynamic and immersive experience with *I:Cube* signature rhythmic excellence and sharp focus on dance floor ready grooves.

Jean-Phi Dary, a producer and keyboardist with deep roots in Paris, London, West Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States, has crafted his debut project MIND to serve as a culmination of his musical journey. With sounds inspired by legends such as Herbie Hancock, Wally Badarou, and Brian Eno - Dary's work is bedded deeply in the modern modular synth culture and enriched by his collaborations with renowned artists like Tony Allen, Papa Wemba, and Jeff Mills - who Jean-Phi is currently collaborating with on "Tomorrow Comes The Harvest" with their album Evolution out last year, soon to be followed by a worldwide tour in 2024!
His innovative use of technology and analog instruments, combined with the unique contributions of I:Cube make the *For Peace Remixes* a notable release.

*Artist Quote* "I had the opportunity to use magnificent samples of the voices of singers from the Maroni River in French Guiana on certain tracks, these voices of the Bushinengé people reconnect me to my Guyanese and neg-maroon origins, my mother was born on the river and my father grew up in the Amazon region..”

Members of Papir & Causa Sui travel through new musical realms. 3 musicians with their own compass: Martin Rude & Jakob Skøtt have shared a wide range of musical quests: from Causa Sui’s “Bitches Brew of Stoner Rock” crossing the folk meditations of Sun River and arriving most recently as members of the pre-fusion electric dealings of the London Odense Ensemble. Papir guitarist Nicklas Sørensen is not merely adding a new layer to an established duo, but his presence to the party have brought it into more meditative dwellings. These pieces move slowly, evolving like the slow growth underneath the ground. Whereas Causa Sui & Papir have always excelled at blistering panoramic and often sundrenched sounds, Edena Gardens take a dive inwards and downwards rather than outwards. But there’s also an electrically charged ecstatic rawness to the dealings. Like Æther, the 10 minute opener’s 2 guitars-and-a-drum kit improv, finding it’s way from tumbling drones into monolithic slow riffage. Elsewhere, we find trails of electronic vapors, misfiring bursts of noise and slow drones stretched out. Edena Gardens is a thing to be experienced first hand - it’s not for everyone, but those who decide to stay are greatly rewarded. It’s a debut unlike any other record on El Paraiso, perhaps unlike any you’ve ever heard. Welcome to Edena Gardens. Tracklist: 1. Aether 2. Sliding Under 3. The Canopy 4. Hidebound 5. Now Here Nowhere 6. Iod 7. An t-eilean Dubh

Acclaimed Canadian electronic producer Francis Latreille, known as Priori, unveils his new singles "Learn To Fly" and “Segue” today, marking the first releases from his upcoming third album, This But More. "Learn To Fly" offers a taste of the album's lush, dubby techno soundscapes, while "Segue" showcases the album's ambient side. Arriving May 24th via NAFF, This But More marks a sonic departure for the artist, exploring a richly textured landscape of electroacoustic compositions inspired by literature, cinema, and the transformative power of nature.

Priori delved into This But More from September 2023 to March 2024, drawing upon archival recordings and fresh ideas. "This album is about healing," Priori explains. "Not necessarily 'music that heals', but about the process in its ups and downs, its beauty and uncertainty." Themes of protection, healing, sleep, and decay naturally emerged during the creative journey.

To craft this immersive world, Priori collaborated extensively. Writer and musician Devon Hansen penned a series of "Suggested Stories" to accompany the album, adding depth to its lore. Musically, Priori teamed up with James K, Ben Bondy, Sabola, Adam Feingold, and Jesse Osborne-Lanthier, infusing the album with diverse instrumentation, including violin, guitar, software instruments, and field recordings.

This collaborative spirit extends to the album's striking visuals. Jesse Orsborne Lanthier designed the main and single artworks, while Ulysse De Lezenne crafted a unique jewel, both pieces seamlessly connected to the album's narrative.

The intricate world-building sets This But More apart. "It's the biggest collaborative project I have tackled so far," Priori notes. This spirit of exploration extends to the second single, “Wake”, featuring Priori's first vocal collaboration with close friend Jamie Krasner (James K).

Priori's artistic process is grounded in self-awareness and intuition, asking vital questions about how each element serves the greater purpose of the music. Swimming sessions between studio work provided clarity and focus throughout the album's creation. These meditative moments reflect in the music, inviting listeners into a contemplative, dreamlike state.

Beyond music, Priori draws inspiration from the literary worlds of Gene Wolfe, Ursula K LeGuin, China Mieville, Brian Caitlin, the evocative games of Hidetaka Miyazaki and Yoko Taro, as well as the ever-evolving beauty of myths and nature.

2024 Repress

Berlin techno talent Regent is next up on Mutual Rytm as he returns with a compelling new five-track 12" titled 'Coral Knife', plus a digital bonus cut.

Regent emerged only in 2020, but has fired out quality tunes on Planet Rhythm Records, Arts Collective and Warg Records since then. His already extensive catalogue of standout releases combines tough and rapid grooves with cerebral qualities and a real depth of writing and sound design, resulting in timeless yet avant-garde material optimised for the dance floor. For that reason, he is one of the new forces emerging from the German capital and why his next EP, 'Coral Knife', sees him find a perfect home on SHDW's Mutual Rytm imprint as he returns with his first 12" on the label following his appearance on the 'Federation Of Rhythm II' compilation earlier this year.

The tight and funky 'Brickyard' opens with a high-speed groove and a taught synth riff darting about the mix to seductive effect, before 'Driftage' gets more raw with rickety percussion over bulky drums. The synths are dubby and liquid as they get smeared about the mix to bring dynamism to the groove. There is then darkness and heaviness to 'Nocta' with weighty kicks and alluring vocal sounds drifting through the late-night airwaves.
Title track 'Coral Knife' cannot fail to sweep dancers off their feet with its fizzing synths and smooth drum loops overlaid with icy hi-hats that get you into a meditative state, while 'Encoder' layers up bleeps and squeaks over a signature linear groove that is detailed with muffled vocals and distant cosmic stars.

As always with Mutual Rytm, the package rounded out with an impressive digital bonus in the form of 'Multiversa' - a driving and thunderous techno cut that closes the show emphatically.

Building on their shared exploration of forward-leaning UK club sounds, EM + STAV herald the arrival of their new label JoyLift with the Endless EP. Having entrenched themselves within the free-spirited landscape of Bristol’s music community, the pair home in on a focused sound which draws on the city’s storied bass mutations as a springboard for their own take on modernist dance music.

There’s a tough, brooding quality to Endless EP which speaks to the meditative pressure of soundsystem immersion, but equally EM + STAV build out evocative, shifting narratives within that club-ready framework. From dubwise processing to deft sound design, a broad church of processes are wielded to shape out these pieces, and physicality comes in many forms whether in weightless sub lines or pointed, angular drum programming. Given their long-standing connection to developments within the underground music scene, there’s a keen instinct for the dynamic shifts which can set a dance alight, while the ill- defined shape of the wider genre-not-genre allows plenty of space for movement and experimentation.

Alongside the three original productions from EM + STAV, kindred spirit Forest Drive West steps up for a remix of ‘Odd' which aligns with the aesthetic intentions of JoyLift while demonstrating the idiosyncratic qualities associated with the scene’s most vital artists. The cohesive feel of Endless EP extends to Luke Griffin’s artwork, in which natural source material undergoes heavy processing to wind up in a striking new form, shot through with colour but ultimately shrouded in a moodiness that harks back through the lineage of hardcore-rooted UK dance music.

By its very nature the future is unwritten for JoyLift, but EM + STAV’s new project commits itself to an ever-evolving palette of sound, rendered as music with a strong sense of identity - tracks to shake the dance without resorting to obvious tropes, responding to and feeding into the inspiring tides of ideas emanating from the environment around them.

Evelyn spreads her wings and prepares to fly. This is her first offering for the ESP Institute. On side A, 'Tremors' slams together a plethora of seemingly disparate rhythms, organic percussion, field samples, hypnotic chants and a relentless low end punch, that when in full-swing, works some seriously deep sorcery. Contrasting her pounding kick and rolling sub combo are a softer grouping of melodies, soft mallets and muted tones that lay subtly beneath the aggression, skillfully playing with a sense of spatial depth and room size. Its the kind of track that draws you in with meditative bars, concentric cycles that sit ever so slightly off-axis, inducing the mind and body to obsess and regulating its timing, and then drops you into a very intentionally arranged soundstage giving expansive space to explore. On the flip, 'Pregunta' continues this approach of natural versus industrial instrumentation. The consistent machine kick has a powerful but playful tone, the negative space between each stroke evoking a mighty gesture as its note bends in the decay. Set in 3/4, a community of live percussion successively adds and subtracts, each player’s imperfect attack accumulating into a mechanically smeared and addictive loop that toys with peaks a handful of times yet restrains any unnecessary climax for the betterment of a driving groove. Near the end, as the kick and various players mute and the base of the track is given a moment to breathe, its apparent just how layered the production was in the moments prior, as we’re suddenly at home, smitten with the wobbly and lopsided innocence of the foundational percussion. These two songs will push you headfirst into the light.

We've been writing new material as a trio since the first lockdown in the spring of 2020. 
An organic and electro-acoustic impulse that translates both mine and Eliete's need of self-archiving, 
re-inventing and auto-cannibalising Tetine's past, present and

future in order to explore other aural 
landscapes and modes of composing intuitively, while at the same time, re-experiencing moments of our 
trajectory as a hybrid organism. 



Music For Breathing was born as a respiratory, meditative, and improvisatory piece of DIY 
tropical-mutant-punk "chamber music" written for cello, voice, piano, organ and electronics. 
The work responds to the suspended acts of breathing and vertigos experienced in contemporary polluted
 environments in political, social and philosophical transitions, whilst investigating the 
secret ontologies of inanimate objects and architectures, as well 
as the echoes and ethics of modes of operating things. 



Recorded during the intense period of heatwaves that hit London between July and August 2022, in 
a small studio set up in our flat's kitchen - so that we could capture the acoustic instrumentation 
(in particular, for the recording of cellos) without much

noise interference from the street - 
this vinyl version of the album comprises of 5 distinct yet complementary reflective movements. 


Musically and lyrically, it explores the atmospherics and syntaxes of time and space, voice, rhythm, 
as well as themes such as hearing loss, menopause, pollution and respiration. It builds an expanded suite of unexpected 
electro-acoustic textures through repetition, minimalistic motives, simple melodies, chromatic 
developments, free counterpoint and atonalism. Conceived as an ode to the poetics of slowness, 
the sounds you hear give continuity to the music we composed for the performance-film 
The Ether - Prelude No.1 over the first lockdown in 2020 as it simultaneously explores the warmth, 
melodiousness and power of the cello in conjunction with electronics. 
Music For Breathing evokes this transitory moment: a place and time where language runs out, 
communication and information lose their functions, sound and meaning do not correspond. Facts do not correspond to contexts. Spaced Out in Paradise. The last degree of the structure, the 
loss of memory. The lost voice.


The album also features our 12-year-old daughter Yoko Afi on cello and vocals. It reflects 
a period of free sound experimentation influenced both by romantic composers of the late
 19th / early 20th centuries and contemporary electronic music. The pieces you hear were composed, arranged, and recorded 
with the joy and melancholy of "those who do not know". In other words, "with the arrogance 
of a second childhood" as Derek Jarman once put it. 'Agile and candid as a child'(1).

1) Manifesto da Poesia Pau-Brasil, Oswald de Andrade, Correio da Manhã, 18 de Março de 1924.

Amsterdam based DJ and producer Mayo joins the Fides family with her Frenemies EP marking the 15th release of Fides Records.

Mayo showcases 5 cuts of finely crafted electro and EBM-influenced Techno, it's impossible not to be drawn by her distorted voice that defines each track.

Unrelenting grooves and a deeper look into her analog sound design flair, these tracks are timeless in sound and production quality.

“Tell me how you die” kicks it off as the A1 with stomping analog kick and drums, a dark jumping bassline pushing the groove with ethereal synths.

“Not your shadow” as the A2 strips it back into a 303Acidbass-based track marked by singular industrial sounds and Vocal Shots that are lost in the groove carried by a background synth sequence that follows throughout the track.

The last track of the A Side is “Frenemies” a pulsing, meditative composition featuring label owner and Tresor resident Z.I.P.P.O, who added to Mayo's energetic, analog and eventually dark sense, a more mental, deep and intense face typical of the Italian artist. The B Side starts with Miami Legend Danny Daze’s Hell Mix of “Frenemies” in which he exhibits his unique sound design techniques, combining tribal-tinged rhythm, sharp FX that pops up from the corners of the soundscape with stretched vocals in order to highlight the track's protagonist: a modulated brass bass.

Mary Lake’s Remix of “Tell Me How you Die” closes the EP with a deep kick drum driven forward with rolling and modulated closed hats that run through the track while atmospheric sounds carry the filtered Brass before dissolving into the end of the track.

Upcoming album 'Fruit Of The Void' to be released later this fall.
Kosmo Sound is a perfect balance of tight rhythms and extended melodies, and they constantly strive to push boundaries with their sound. Having worked together with dub legends Daniel Boyle and Alpha & Omega and having played as the support act for Adrian Sherwood, The Twinkle Brothers and Omar Perry, heavily inspired, they took refuge in the studio to record this album full of meditative sounds and dense grooves.

“It's a slow motion dub explosion.” - Woodburner

“As a mixture of Slimmah Sound, El Michels Afffair and Khruangbin in which deep dub basses flirt with thin desert blues guitars, jazzy drum patterns and tufts of saxophone.” - Indiestyle

“The canvas that these six musicians span as Kosmo Sound has a musical breadth that effortlessly ranges from dub over jazz to psych.” - daMusic

"an amalgation of styles that tickle the senses" - ReggaeVibes

“This remarkable debut makes one curious about future releases” – Irie Ites

States Of Bliss’ is the next album by Fred P, his third full length in the last year, following ‘Oasis’ and ‘Abstract Soul’ and the most expansive of the three. Produced on the move in hotels and airports, as well as Fred's studio in Berlin, ‘States Of Bliss’ is described by Fred as “a collection of musical imaginations that truly inspire one to actions of positivity and balance, incorporating a range of emotive moods to create an environment for expansion within a sonic structure.”

Within the two parts States Of Bliss becomes a musical landscape spanning dance floor grooves such as ‘In The Flow’ with a vocal sample by Cassy, to the psychedelic acid jazz of ‘Live Your way’ moving into the meditative ambient goodness of ‘Awakening Desire’. There’s also the jazz track ‘NY’ recorded in 2012 that was remixed for the legendary "Selected" compilation. Not leaving any realm unnoticed, ‘River’ is a sought after soundscape and ‘Elevated States’ see’s Fred delves into trippy electronica. In the club or listening at home, Fred’s music makes perfect sense on either side.

Soma proudly presents Functional Designs, the latest collection of nocturnal environments from Deepchord, marking his first full length album release on Soma in 5 years. The enigmatic Detroit based producer once again transports us into his sonic realm via night-walks through numerous cities before being transmuted into aural excellence through field recordings, holographic synth tones, cosmic sounds and the hiss of electric wires. All swimming around in filtered 4/4 beats and subterranean basslines. The album is a perfect example of electroacoustic techno transmitted from undisclosed locations, the amalgamation of swirling tapestries of sound, deeper than night and lifeforms moving around underneath the grid.

The album glistens into existence with the beatless Amber breathing life into the project before the eventide of Darkness Falls offers a beautifully subtle and contemplative atmosphere. The guiding light of Transit Systems continues to offer up melancholy with echoing percussion and drifting soundscapes. The highly processed acoustics of Strangers brings a sense of intrigue to the album's journey as Modell works in the most percussive track so far. Panacast is exotic dub techno at it's finest, with warping and perfectly crafted synth work building gently over the top of sub heavy beats, glued perfectly together by the hiss of the collected found-sounds. In a slight rise in tempo, Cloudsat, makes a journey skyward, collecting mood and feelings from high altitude with its emotive synth work. The reverberating halls of Pressure again work as a testament to Modell's sonic crafting - honing in on specific artefacts from his field recordings, imbuing them with deeper purpose. The perfectly titled Ebb and Flow drifts effortlessly on a tide of evolving, blissful sound waves crashing to shore as each one overlaps the other. Beginning the descent into the final part of the album, you begin your ride across a cosmic plain, lit by the glistening and ethereal Sun. The meditative Memories opens a conduit to other realms as the album closes out with the elysian melodies of Drassanes.

Deepchord once again proves he is a producer like no other. A true sonic sculptor who uses his real world experience to create vast, unparalleled soundscapes that captivate and enthral the listener.

180g vinyl pressing.

During the late 2010s, music lovers around the world began obsessively listening to increasingly esoteric albums on Youtube. More often than not, they’d leave the browser on autoplay. This was how Facundo Arena, the composer and producer behind The Kyoto Connection, discovered the technonaturalistic pleasures of Kankyō Ongaku (environmental music), a distinctly Japanese interpretation of European, British and American minimalist composition and ambient music. “It was a kind of algorithmic magic,” he says.

Upload by upload, the utopian music of Hiroshi Yoshimura and his 80s Japanese contemporaries transported Facundo back to his childhood. When he was five, his father placed him in karate lessons and began watching martial arts movies with him. From those early experiences, Facundo became fascinated Japanese history, tradition, and culture, particularly that of Kyoto - the cultural capital of Japan. Kankyō Ongaku reminded him of hearing the sounds of Japanese folkloric instruments as a young boy, and suddenly, the way the influence of Japan had manifested in his music made sense. “I had the sensation that for many years, I’d been doing something similar to the style,” he explains.

Inspired, Facundo used an iPad and an old Akai cassette deck to record Postcards, his homage to Japanese minimalism and Kankyō Ongaku. By this stage, he was twelve years deep with The Kyoto Connection, the musical project he launched in 2005 in his hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Over that late 2000s and 2010s, Facundo, later on joined by collaborators Rodrigo Trado (drums), Jesica Rubino (violin) and Marian Benitez (vocals, now his wife), released numerous D.I.Y albums. Project by project, they followed the threads between 80s synth-pop, ambient, new age, house, techno and acoustic composition.

Postcards introduced The Kyoto Connection to listeners around the world and brought Facundo into our orbit. During Argentina’s covid lockdown, Facundo received a set of soundscapes recorded in Kyoto by the Japanese musician and sound designer Masafumi Komatsu. Over several insular months, he decorated them with synthesisers, samples and subtle rhythms, creating The Kyoto Connection’s next album, The Flower, The Bird and the Mountain to be released via Isle Of Jura offshoot Temples Of Jura.

Ostensibly made up of twelve distinct tracks, listening to The Flower, The Bird and the Mountain feels more akin to spending calm, meditative time in twelve specific environments. Although the foundations they rest on are recordings made in geographic locations around Kyoto, Facundo has yet to visit Japan. As a result, the landscapes he paints sit somewhere between fiction and fact, richly pictorial sonic imagination juxtaposed with echoes of reality. Regardless, as his bubbling melodies and glistening synthesisers glide against Masafumi Komatsu's recordings, Facundo guides us into a blissful zone of tranquillity well worth spending time within.

With the two-part EP Mediterranean Dreams, Perugia producer and composer Feel Fly revisits his musical roots and pays tribute to the sounds and ‘sun-kissed nostalgia’ that informed his style.


Mediterranean Dreams Part 1 collected four tracks, and added that Feel Fly touch of emotive chord progressions and layered production onto cosmic disco grooves to powerful dancefloor effect. Now with Mediterranean Dream Part 2, Feel Fly switches the tempo both up and down, to fully demonstrate his affinity for club moments of all shapes and sizes.


Nebula flies out the gate with full intent, recalling classic Detroit techno while pushing the vibe even more wide-screen - it’s driving, melodic dance music that delivers on the fine details as much as it does on the life-affirming, big picture sentiment.


Optical Bells opens in meditative style, not unlike a new dawn in a Tibetan monastery, before each element of the track slowly reveals itself and assumes its place. It’s an arrangement technique that Feel Fly employs masterfully, and gives the impression of a camera lens moving into focus, or a storyteller setting the scene. The revolving chord changes pull you in and while whisking you away, you’re compelled to engage with the moment - like being asked to dance by a mysterious stranger.


The B side kicks off with Luce Eterna Ai Sognatori, still keeping the tempo high while cherry-picking disco house drum patterns and piano synths with a slight Italo flavor to create an irresistible slice of dancefloor dessert. This is a soundtrack for Sognatori, in whose dreams anything is possible.


The EP finishes up with a superb cut of echoey balearic dub in the form of Templum Dub. Putting the drums through its mixing desk paces, Feel Fly reanimates the drum kit with delays, phasers and flangers, and wraps it up in hazy drifting pads that could accompany any moment of contemplation - from that morning espresso to a midnight phone call.


Mediterranean Dreams Part 2 acts as the perfect compliment to its prequel Part 1, and shows a producer at the height of his powers, reimagining his musical roots and composing a love letter to the sounds and stories of his youth.

Spanish producer Pedro Vian is dreaming of the sea on “Ibillorca”, his third studio album.

Vian, whose Modern Obscure Music label is at the heart of the Barcelona electronic scene, moved to Amsterdam in 2018. While the Dutch capital has embraced this inventive producer and DJ, Vian says the new album is inspired by a feelings of absence and longing for his Mediterranean home. “On this album I explore my feelings of missing the light,” he says. “Ibillorca is a journey to a utopian island, a journey to a new state of mind.”

You can hear this displaced utopia on songs like “Can Mortera”, a dreamy reflection on house music, recorded in Ibiza in summer 2019, that brings to mind Larry Heard at his most meditative; or “Medusa” (featuring artist Rosalie Wammes), which sounds like Tangerine Dream drifting over the sea.

The Quietus called Pedro Vian’s debut album “Beautiful Things You Left Us For Memories” “the soundtrack to walking around the city at night”, while his eponymous second album was both deeply personal and more suited for the dance floor. “Ibillorca” is his Mediterranean album. “I love the Mediterranean sea,” Vian explains. “I come from there and I miss the light, the sun and the smell of the sea, so I dedicated this album to this feeling.” Fittingly, “Ibillorca”’s enigmatic cover art, painted by Spanish artist Blanca Miró, depicts the Mediterranean islands of Ibiza & Mallorca

“Ibillorca” is also Vian’s most varied release to date: “The Destiny Manifest” nods to drum and bass - albeit a touchingly Iberian take on the genre - while “Western Snow” has a hint of Erik Satie’s piano minimalism. Vian’s new home in The Netherlands also played a role in shaping “Ibillorca” .Vian recorded the album during his residency at HetHEM, a new contemporary space in Zandaam, 30 minutes from Amsterdam. “I have my studio at the top of the building, from there I can see all the boats going up and down the river IJ,” Vian says. “The art space is located in an industrial area, everything is grey, also the sky.” All the better, then, for dreaming of the sea.

**RED VINYL**Bookending “This Is My Blood “ are two cinematic hypnotist slide lute pieces that evoke contemporary deserted landscapes. They were improvised and made for “ Maquina”, a film shot in the Colorado desert during a psychedelic trip by film maker Joaquim Pujol. The works on here, like the ecstatic second piece invite a return to long form listening. They explore contemporary darkness and contemplate personal loss. There is solely one vocal piece, “ Remission”. A worldwide concert tour of this material is slated for 2026/2027. Since studying the lute in New York with Patrick O'Brien in the 1990s, Van Wissem has gone on to create works equally as rooted in classical Renaissance and Baroque forms of lute music, as contemporary sounds spanning drones, electronics and field recordings. Throw in some of his formative influences from the no wave and industrial scenes, alongside a dedicated approach to minimalism and this has resulted in Van Wissem producing distinct and singular work whose sound is often a marriage of opposites; meditative and intense, forward thinking but with a sense of the arcane. The Quietus has called him "probably the most famous lutenist in the world”. Jozef Van Wissem is an avant-garde composer and lutenist who plays a unique all-black baroque lute. His timeless music is often described as hypnotic, minimal, and hauntingly atmospheric, merging beauty with a dark, meditative edge. His lyrics have a mythical Christian appeal, incorporating themes of love, faith, and the afterlife, often with a repetitive, mantra-like quality. Bridging classical traditions with modern sounds like drones, electronics, field recordings and voice. He collaborates with filmmaker and musician Jim Jarmusch, including the award-winning soundtrack for Only Lovers Left Alive, for which Van Wissem won the Cannes Soundtrack Award in 2013. He also scored the Sims Medieval Video game ( 2011), Uncle Howard ( 2016) Land (2018), Irma Vep (2022), Queens (2023) and Un Prince (2024). He did a world tour in duo with Jarmusch in 2025 and their 5th record “ The Day The Angels Cried” was released. Van Wissem tours extensively, performing in diverse venues from rock festivals to churches, and has worked with artists like Tilda Swinton and Zola Jesus. In 2019 he was commissioned by Cinematheque Francaise to score the silent horror film Nosferatu (1922). He released the soundtrack in 2022 on his own Incunabulum label. The New York Times wrote: Beginning with a solo played on the lute, his performance will incorporate electric guitar and distorted recordings of extinct birds, graduating from subtlety to gothic horror. “My soundtrack goes from silence to noise over the course of 90 minutes,” he said, culminating in “dense, slow death metal.” In 2024 Van Wissem did a sold out nationwide American tour with the film. A worldwide tour is slated for 2026/2027

The Messier Objects returns with the second release on their label containing ten new tracks from the new TMO alter ego ‘Messier One.’ The work combines nostalgic IDM, eerie ambient and dreamy dub techno into one mini-album, inspired by the brute forces of nature and the power of healing and regeneration.

Expect to feel the force of nature on the A-side, where tracks such as ‘Earth’s Signal 04’ and ‘The Greatest Ebb Current’ contain distorted and fuzzy pads, eerie and vague echoing vocals, and whitenoise patterns that somehow feel strangely calming. Together with the broken drum patterns on tracks such as ‘Who Do You Worship?’, and the distorted kicks on ‘Kaalo Asmi Loka Kshaya Kritpraviddho’, the A-side manages to create crude IDM and ambient patterns – resembling historic natural events as if you were there yourself.

On the B-side. the noisy and broken patterns from the previous six tracks are replaced with warm and meditative sounds. ‘Two Tides’ is filled with soothing arpeggiated soundscapes and echoing voices, and the organic jungle chants and mythical vocals in ‘Rebuilding Temples’ further continue the process of regeneration. The B-side is accompanied with two remixes from Messier808 (known from the first release), who brings his typical meditative 4x4 patterns to the table, accompanied by dreamy textures, cyclical melodies and illusive effects from a now ‘healed’ society.

This thoughtful release brings a complete story told in only ten chapters. As always, their releases are backed by breathtaking artworks using vibrant and organic colours, completing an intriguing mini-album.

Zusammenarbeit von Khruangbin und dem malischen Gitarrist Vieux Farka Touré zu Ehren von Vieux' Vater Ali Farka Touré. Der "König des Wüstenblues" galt als einer der renommiertesten und talentiertesten Gitarristen, die Afrika je hervorgebracht hat. Das Rolling Stone Magazin wählte den 2006 verstorbenen Musiker unter die einhundert besten Gitarristen aller Zeiten. In Alis Sound verschmolzen traditionelle malische Musikstile mit verschiedenen Elementen des Blues, wobei er in den lokalen Sprachen Songhay, Tamasheq, Fulfulde und Bambara sang. Das Ergebnis war die Schaffung eines bahnbrechenden neuen Genres, das heute als "Wüstenblues" bekannt ist und Ali drei Grammy-Auszeichnungen, weltweite Anerkennung und den Spitznamen "afrikanischer John Lee Hooker" einbrachte. Die Kollaboration zwischen Khruangbin und Vieux Farka Touré zollt Alis Vermächtnis Tribut, indem sie einige seiner wirkungsvollsten Werke neu interpretiert und mit verschiedenen Sounds experimentiert, ohne die Integrität des Originals zu vernachlässigen. Das Ergebnis ist eine würdige Hommage an eine Legende, die eine erfrischende westafrikanische Mischung aus musikalischen Referenzen schafft. Die acht Songs auf "Ali" sind Vieux' Favoriten und repräsentieren viele verschiedene Abschnitte in Alis Karriere - darunter bekannte Songs wie das ursprünglich mit Ry Cooder aufgenommene "Diarabi", obskure Titel wie "Alakarra" und alles dazwischen. "Ali Hala Abada" ist ein langsames und meditatives Instrumentalstück, das durch die Leadstimme von Vieux hervorgehoben wird, in die Lee ihren verankerten Begleitrhythmus perfekt einfließen lässt. Mit "Ali" schaffen die Künstler eine respektvolle Erinnerung an Alis Leben. Highlights und B-Seiten werden aus seinem Katalog gleichermaßen gewürdigt. Dabei bewahrt sich das Quartett die natürliche Improvisation seiner Musik und bringt auch ihre eigene ein. Es passt, dass Vieux das texanische Trio auswählte, um das Erbe seines Vaters zu ehren. Der psychedelische Funk von Khruangbin findet inzwischen weltweiten Anklang.

Peace World Records returns with Hidden Atmospheres, the debut release produced by Max F and mixed by Space Ghost. Drawing from classic deep house and esoteric club sounds of the '90s and early 2000s, this seven-track collection channels these influences into fresh territory while preserving the digital grit and dreamlike essence of the era.

The release strikes a delicate balance between the meditative and the kinetic. On the A Side, tracks “Soul Control” and “Zone 6” highlight subtle yet hard-hitting percussion grooves and deep basslines that anchor the mix beneath ethereal pads and sweeps. Each track builds through hypnotic, evolving arrangements that reward close listening. On the B side, “Dream Channel” and “Earth Effects" both feature airy, spectral synth progressions that interweave with ephemeral yet decisive melodies, demonstrating a refined insight of space and dynamics. To round things off, Space Ghost took a crack at an energetic club remix of “Dream Channel. ” Carried by a classic 909 house rhythm and a bubbly bassline, the remix offers a fun, uplifting take on the original, complete with organ stabs and MIDI sax!

As a whole, Hidden Atmospheres delivers something new for fans of 90s and 2000s era house music. Think Ronin, Hanna, Chris Brann, Wamdue Kids—artists whose work holds its own in the club while remaining equally suited for intimate late-night listening. Throughout the record, tracks drift seamlessly between shimmering dancefloor functionality and liminal, introspective ambience, inviting repeat listens that reveal new details and "hidden atmospheres" with eachpass.

Hidden Atmospheres lands on Peace World Records April 9th, 2026.







g B3. Dream Channel Space Ghost Club Remix

Xylitol, aka producer and DJ Catherine Backhouse, shifts up the refinement and musical breadth for her second album Blumenfantasie, the follow-up to her Planet Mu debut Anemones.
With Blumenfantasie, Xylitol wanted “to make space and for the music to float and propel at once”, finding routes through the pointillistic figures, cascading synths and the meditative stillness of kosmische musik and bolder breakbeat programming. She reaches this delicate balance through careful subtraction, hoping “to convey a sense of intimacy and sadness but without sentimentality” which she manages with a feel and sound that's raw and intuitive.

Blumenfantasie rolls through detailed jungle workouts that flutter and bleep, through beatless ambience, taking a rare dip below 160 bpm for the elegiac Mirjana, the album’s most explicit nod to Krautrock with a drum break chopped up from Amon Duul II’s anthemic ‘Archangel’s Thunderbird’, through to Halo, a bare bones grime rhythm that calls to mind the missing link between industrial pioneers Nurse With Wound and Wiley's Eskibeat.

Catherine cast her net to draw in experimental audiovisual duo Sculpture and Reading based post-rock band The Leaf Library as collaborators, pulling the former’s whirling eddies of musique concrète into a slice of sublime aquatic jungle, and the latter’s radiophonic folksong into a dark and disorientating breakbeat workout equally indebted to Source Direct as to Broadcast.
Blumenfantasie moves with a confident, self-effacing fluidity which has been informed by DJ Bunnyhausen’s more regular DJ gigs. She speculates ‘if this album feels more cohesive than its predecessor it's likely because I've been DJing a lot more, with Worthing Techno Militia, with central and eastern european electronica collective Slav to the Rhythm, as well as being part of Italo Disco crew Flex. Moving between these zones seemed to open up hidden pathways between the disparate musical trajectories they represent.'
While Anemones contrasted the rough and the delicate, its successor is an album built for the head, hips and heart, with painterly sounds and a sense of intimacy that encourages deep listening while keeping its eyes on the strobelight and its feet on the dancefloor.

WRWTFWW Records is very happy to announce the release of Interwoven, the deeply moving collaborative album from Ken-ichiro Isoda and aus (Yasuhiko Fukuzono) — now available on limited edition transparent sea green colored vinyl LP housed in a heavyweight sleeve with selective-varnish 3D print, as well as in digipack CD and digital formats.
Recorded between Hachijo Island and Tokyo, Interwoven distills two visionary voices of Japanese ambient and electronic music into a single breath of feather-light and quietly luminous meditative sound.

Isoda is a revered figure of New-age and environmental music whose work on Oscilation Circuit – Série Réflexion 1 (originally released on famed label Sound Process) has long attained mythic status. He composes, notably with harp and wind instruments, produces contemporary music and video game scores, and crafts his very own brand of ambient music from the volcanic island of Hachijo-jima. Tokyo-based electronic composer and synth master aus is known for tender, melody-driven soundscapes. From the two artists comes a dialogue suspended between land and sea, bridging the generation gap and the physical distance between them.

What began as a series of sketches — impressions of water, islands, and shifting light — gradually evolved into an exchange without explanation, a correspondence of sound that dissolved boundaries. In that anonymity, both artists discovered an uncommon freedom: a place where each could move lightly and intuitively, without expectation. The music drifts with a gentle, intuitive grace: lingering piano, soft cinematic synths, and field recordings that unfold like whispered recollections, while flute and saxophone lines pass through like occasional breezes — a human presence felt as warmth more than form.

Interwoven is music for those who cherish stillness and the delicate beauty of the everyday. It’s music for admirers of Satoshi Ashikawa, Midori Takada, Satsuki Shibano, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Takashi Kokubo, Brian Eno, and all who seek a quiet refuge in sound.

Osunlade returns with a 5 track EP of exceptional quality showcasing his unique talent for creating emotive, electronic, cerebral house music with soul. Even within these boundaries Osunlade finds scope for variation, be it irresistible bumping grooves(Sistagurl), meditative melodies with etherial thought provoking spoken word, (The Journey), or full on electronic soundscapes encompassing the tribal and the esoteric, (Prism).

Pimpin’ takes a slowed down acid bass-line as the cue for a diatribe against the changes in the pimp game - a metaphor for today’s decline in standards of excellence.
The jewel in this crown is a hark back to the days of raw house music with a powerful and emotive female vocal. The Way U Left Me is an emboldened declaration of independence from toxic love guaranteed to tear down any dance.

We Release JAZZ is very happy to announce the limited vinyl edition of Ill Considered's transcendent new live album Live in Jura, an expansive document of the trio's 2023 performance at Spiegelberg Festival - now available as a double LP with a bonus D-side, housed in a heavyweight sleeve with obi and an original artwork by Vincent de Boer.
Captured in the heights of Saignelégier, Switzerland, in the middle of a pasture overlooking the Jura mountains, Live in Jura bottles the singular Ill Considered live experience at its most open, responsive, and elemental. From Idris Rahman (sax, flute), Liran Donin (bass), and Emre Ramazanoglu (drums), this is deep free improv built from intuition and heart - an ever-evolving conversation of groove, texture, and spirit. Whispered motifs bloom into towering climaxes; earthy bass surges meet shimmering cymbal work; woodwind lines move from meditative invocation to ecstatic release. It is music shaped by the audience, the environment, and the moment : alive, unrepeatable, and deeply organic.
The bonus D-side extends the album's world with a unique ambient composition made from field-recorded organic sounds of the forest surrounding the concert area. Re-composed into a drifting, luminous piece, it features The Voices of the Alpenglow, blurring the boundary between performance and landscape, human gesture and elemental presence.
Ill Considered - known for forging improvised music around simple themes or spontaneously created structures - here reach a new level of sensitivity and power. Live in Jura follows We Release JAZZ's release of Shoals by Ill Considered members Earth and Bones, continuing a line of exploratory, heart-forward music grounded in profound listening and spontaneous creation.

Iñigo Medina aka M4 explores the profound convergence of two disciplines that share a common foundation: the manipulation of vibration and resonance to transform consciousness and space: Yoga and Electronic Music.
While Yoga balances the body's energetic vibrations through breath, posture, and meditation, electronic music employs sustained tones, slowly shifting sequences, and atmospheric textures that induce trance states and align with meditative brainwave patterns.
"Reset Series" is characterized by atmospheric, non-danceable soundscapes built on repetitive sequences and arpeggios that slowly evolve, often processed through delay and reverb. Both yoga sequences and M4 compositions (the full track is almost an hourlong, divided into two parts) unfold gradually over extended durations . Each practice invites a journey inward, guiding the practitioner or listener through layers of repeating motifs that subtly transform, revealing deeper states of awareness with patient attention.
Time becomes elastic; space becomes internal; vibration becomes the universal language connecting body, environment, and sound.

Alpha & Omega (Greensleeves / A&O Records), the legendary pioneers of UK Dub, have shaped the sound of modern roots and dub since the 1980s, building a vast catalogue of over 40 studio albums. Their deep, meditative sound is foundational to the evolution of soundsystem culture and the global spread of bass music from Jamaica to the UK and beyond. Now, as part of the acclaimed A&O reissue series by Steppas Records, we proudly present the long-awaited reissue of Voice in the Wilderness. Originally released in 1994, this classic LP is one of the rarest in the Alpha & Omega catalogue—original pressings are almost impossible to find and regularly fetch extremely high prices on Discogs. Lovingly re-mastered and housed in the original sleeve with iconic A&O artwork, Voice in the Wilderness is a powerful statement in dub and a true collector’s treasure. This is UK dub history, revived.

Yogg delivers the second release on his Polarized Future label, with four deep and sub-heavy cuts on ‘Don’t You’. Produced in his new Brussels studio, the EP channels the tension between familiarity and instability. The sounds here are deconstructed, fizzing and alive, produced with a pointillistic attention to detail.

This is music built for soundsystems, with a strong emphasis on bass weight and meditative, spacious minimalism. Elements are removed to the bare essentials, at times feeling like a contemporary reimagining of the early sound of dubstep; echoing the unease of a society in the midst of a dystopian timeline.

This 2xLP is available for the first time on vinyl and blends his signature jazz and R&B mastery into a meditative soundscape. Glasper himself describes the album as a sanctuary, stating, "It's just something that quiets the world and allows you to see what's within." The album features Meshell Ndegeocello, Chris Sholar, Kendrick Scott and Burniss Travis.

On »Empty Room,« David Granström works with slow transformations, cyclical and isometric patterns as well as just intonation as a way to create harmonic stability, allowing his long-form pieces to develop their own unique temporal and spatial qualities. A prolific figure in Stockholm’s experimental drone scene and a collaborator of Hallow Ground label mates Maria W Horn and Mats Erlandsson, the Swedish composer navigates through moments of quietude and crushing volume on these five tracks. Sonically and atmospherically, the pieces on »Empty Room« simultaneously call to mind Fennesz’s most meditative work or the physical experience of seeing Sunn O))) live, blending guitar recordings and synthesised sounds with forceful effects similar to those of Mario Díaz de Leon’s Oneirogen project while still being as moving and delicate as Alessandro Cortini’s solo work. The album is marked by melodies and harmonies that are the product of a peculiar working process that turned the composer into an intent listener collaborating with, rather than simply using technology.

Having been invited by the self-organising artist group The Non Existent Center for a residency to Ställbergs Gruva, a defunct iron ore mine in Sweden’s Bergslagen region, Granström took his guitar as a starting point for his compositional work that heavily relies on real-time sound synthesis. »I seldomly use the instrument as a sound source in the final compositions and rather transcribe and orchestrate the harmonic structures using sound synthesis,« he explains. »On this album however, I chose to include the actual recordings of the guitar in order to extend the spectra between non-referential synthetic sounds and embodied referential sounds.« Working with precise tunings in order to blend the timbre of the synthesis with the harmonic structures of the composition, he created composite sound objects in which the harmonic elements blend into each other.

Through the re-amplification of synthetic musical materials from the inside of the abandoned mine, his original compositions were enriched with site-specific sound qualities before he further refined them in a singular working process. Granström works with algorithmic and generative processes, using the SuperCollider programming environment and thus blurring the lines between generative and creative forms of composition. »One of the things that I like about this way of working is that it creates a distance between myself as a composer and myself as a listener of the music that is produced entirely by the system,« he says. Granström’s technologically aided eschewing of the conventions of composing doesn’t make the end result any less personal, however. By listening again and again to the newly generated output, Granström simply took on a different role in the process of finalising the music, with the technology and the sounds becoming his co-authors.

By creating systems that generate music, he gains a new perspective on (musical) time, says Granström. »There doesn't have to be a fixed length to the music at all,« he explains. »And by writing music with this in mind, my focus tends to shift towards writing cyclical structures that gradually change and transform over time.« Simple parts, in other words, that emerge as the five complex wholes that form »Empty Room,« a record that itself seems to take on different forms with every new listen.

Solo Suono is the first collaboration between saxophonist Filippo Ansaldi and electronic musician Simone Sims Longo, both based in Cuneo, Italy. Solo Suono is an album between acoustic gesture and electronic treatment, beyond the classical while starting from the classical. Breath, amplified mechanics, residual sounds, expressive freedom, and different forms that integrate electroacoustic composition. Passing through looped gestures, electronic processes, and concrete sound explorations, it investigates textures that blur the line between organic and synthetic, emphasizing subtle timbral shifts, evolving patterns, and the interaction between chance and structure. Fragile, immersive, and at times meditative, the music opens a space where the listener can inhabit both the immediacy of performance and the expanded sound world of electronic manipulation. Solo Suono is a phrase open to multiple interpretations, a naïve description of music.

Two musicians, two different folk music traditions, two soundscapes hundreds of miles apart and one nightingale song. Nightingale melodies inspired this intoxicating folk album by Slovakian flautist Michaela Antalová and Norwegian double bassist Adrian Myhr. The Oslo-based duo’s album follows their meditative 2021 debut Zvony (Bells), which featured harmonium, field recordings of crickets and a Slovak male choir.

Sing Nightingale is a translation of ‘Zaspievaj Slavicku’, a traditional Slovakian song. The duo experiments with this theme of the songbird; exploring instrumentation from around the world and its rich tonal textures. On ‘Night Singing’, Michaela plays a Slovakian fujara, a tall, upright wooden bass flute originally played by shepherds. The fujara’s smooth, deep tones are laid over a recording of a nightingale by musicologist Tomáš Šenkyřík, with Michaela’s flute mimicking the bird’s nocturnal chirps and warbles to attract a mate. Michaela is carefully imitating the bird, who is in turn improvising his melody. In ‘Worm Moon’, named after the springtime full moon in March, when nightingales return from Africa where they have spent the cold winter, Adrian’s slow and resonant double bass is brightened by the sweet trills of a real nightingale and Michaela’s fujara.

The Norwegian Hardanger fiddle or hardingfele, features on two specially written songs; ‘Lament’ and ‘Rosenhave’ (rose garden) which bring together the nightingale’s symbolic associations with undying love, sacrifice, deep sorrow and loss. Celebrated Hardanger fiddle player Helga Myhr plays alongside Adrian’s double bass and Michaela’s seljefløyte or willow flute. Helga also plays on ‘Flagre’ (Flutter) and ‘Dance Nightingale’. The seljefløyte is very similar to the Slovak overtone flute koncovka. By using this Norwegian instrument, Adrian and Michaela’s new compositions are reminiscent of both countries’ folk traditions. Folk music often comes from unknown sources; the original writer may not be known and the melodies are typically passed down orally. Michaela and Adrian’s project merges the different folk musics from their respective countries, finding common ground in the sonic qualities of instruments and evolving a new hybrid folk style, authentic in its own right.

For the stunning adaptation of the traditional Slovakian fujara song ‘Dolu Ovce Dolinami’ (‘Sheep down the valleys’), Adrian’s friend Javid Afsari Rad plays the Iranian santur, similar to the traditional Slovak string instrument cimbalom. By coincidence, Iran’s national bird is the nightingale, making another unexpected connection to the symbolic bird. These 11 tracks are a beguiling fusion of traditional folk styles, approached by musicians from an avant-garde, improv and jazz background. The album pays tribute to a hugely expressive bird and finds a strange, soothing universality in the folk sounds of different countries.

Wild by nature, the Does of the Florian Pellissier Quintet could never be contained in a creative pen that would have forced them never to cross potential geographical limits. Travelers, spending their energy without restraint to let the hard bop of their jazz wander and export itself wherever the groove guided them, they went as far as Africa or South America, from the Cape of Good Hope to Rio. Rio, precisely where, for their last appearance, exposure to a brief electric current had carried them into outer space. A revelation.


Furious strides, exhausting gambols, the Does had done so much that they could not escape the obvious call of calm and serenity. Freed from distances, and after a stop in Colombia to mingle with the crowd at the Barranquilla carnival, it was California and its Pacific coast they reached, to rest before the peaceful immensity of the ocean.


One hundred sixty-five million square kilometers, an infinite expanse to contemplate in order to fling wide open the gates to an even vaster space. A spiritual domain conducive to the search for new sounds. That of the open sea, where measuring miles is neither relevant nor meaningful, and where the only compass becomes the musical tracks the Does follow.


Beneath their coppery hooves, to the crystalline sound of the Fender Rhodes and the sweep of electric layers, the path to take revealed itself in this meditative and abstract realm they had never before explored. Invited to join the purely organic textures, the synthetic notes distilled a few aromas of sweetness into an album of ten tracks, where the FPQ abandoned written scores on some pieces in order to be guided only by the inspiration born of a newfound freedom.


Blue when they began their journey five albums ago, their coat has now taken on the colors that illuminate the Pacific coast. That moment when, as you gaze at the horizon swallowing the sun, only glowing shades filter through—reddish, orange, violet.


Departing without haste or frenzy from one of the shores bordering the ocean, the voices of Archie Shepp, Iggy Pop, and DjeuhDjoah still resonating in their antlers, the Does may now be on the opposite shore. Carried all the way to the Japanese coast by Hokusai’s wave…

Wild by nature, the Does of the Florian Pellissier Quintet could never be contained in a creative pen that would have forced them never to cross potential geographical limits. Travelers, spending their energy without restraint to let the hard bop of their jazz wander and export itself wherever the groove guided them, they went as far as Africa or South America, from the Cape of Good Hope to Rio. Rio, precisely where, for their last appearance, exposure to a brief electric current had carried them into outer space. A revelation.
Furious strides, exhausting gambols, the Does had done so much that they could not escape the obvious call of calm and serenity. Freed from distances, and after a stop in Colombia to mingle with the crowd at the Barranquilla carnival, it was California and its Pacific coast they reached, to rest before the peaceful immensity of the ocean.
One hundred sixty-five million square kilometers, an infinite expanse to contemplate in order to fling wide open the gates to an even vaster space. A spiritual domain conducive to the search for new sounds. That of the open sea, where measuring miles is neither relevant nor meaningful, and where the only compass becomes the musical tracks the Does follow.
Beneath their coppery hooves, to the crystalline sound of the Fender Rhodes and the sweep of electric layers, the path to take revealed itself in this meditative and abstract realm they had never before explored. Invited to join the purely organic textures, the synthetic notes distilled a few aromas of sweetness into an album of ten tracks, where the FPQ abandoned written scores on some pieces in order to be guided only by the inspiration born of a newfound freedom.
Blue when they began their journey five albums ago, their coat has now taken on the colors that illuminate the Pacific coast. That moment when, as you gaze at the horizon swallowing the sun, only glowing shades filter through—reddish, orange, violet.
Departing without haste or frenzy from one of the shores bordering the ocean, the voices of Archie Shepp, Iggy Pop, and DjeuhDjoah still resonating in their antlers, the Does may now be on the opposite shore. Carried all the way to the Japanese coast by Hokusai’s wave…

Colored Vinyl. St. Patrick's Cough" sees the Belfast trio diving deep into psychedelic rock and improvisational soundscapes, recorded near the holy well in Holywell between Counties Fermanagh and Leitrim. The result is a sprawling journey of cosmic jams, swirling instrumentation and a meditative undercurrent _ the album stands as a bold statement of the band's creative evolution.

Carving vast chasms of space with exacting sound design and deadly poise, Katatonic Silentio returns to the Mantis series for another round of highly detailed leftfield techno exploration. The Turin based sound artist continues to plot her own path through contemporary electronic music, taking cues from soundsystem pressure and dubwise minimalism as much as glitchy experimentation and the meditative repetition of techno. While her output across many different labels can reach to noisy extremes and beatless atmospheres, on her latest for Mantis the Italian artist zeroes in on a hypnotic, mysterious sound cast in the icy moods of late 90s tech step and early dubstep. At all times she finds space for surprise interference even in the most austere of situations, creating a palpable tension that amplifies the deep dancefloor potential of her music and moulding powerful physicality out of subtle elements.

“Twenty-five years into their existence, The Album Leaf are an old comfy sweater. It might not be the most fashionable thing in your collection but it always feels good when you put it on. Jimmy LaValle’s synth textures are warm, nostalgic and steeped in Boards of Canada / Ulrich Schnauss-style soundscapes that are relaxing, otherworldly and melodic” – Brooklyn Vegan

The Album Leaf shares his new ambient LP, Rotations. The record is a mediative experiment into atmospheric sound. Creator Jimmy LaValle explains, “This collection of music is a true reflection of my creative process—rooted in sound exploration, experimentation, and spontaneous response. Each track captures a moment of creative discovery, free from the pressure of achieving a polished result. Throughout my career, I’ve often placed significant weight on what an album should be. With this release, I’ve let go of those expectations to share a body of work that feels genuine and authentic.

The Album Leaf began as the solo project of Jimmy LaValle, who came up in the San Diego music scene playing in hardcore bands and the instrumental rock band Tristeza. He had inked a deal to release his next solo album through the indie label Tigerstyle Records, so he put the modest advance towards a self-recording starter setup, building out the sound with occasional studio access. The music that emerged — vivid, rhythmic, soaring instrumentals guided by lines of Guitar and Rhodes — not only set the path for The Album Leaf over the next two decades of acclaimed releases (for Sub Pop, City Slang, and others), it became a touchstone for the next generation's wave of melodic and meditative electro-organic music.

2025 Repress!

Recorded in a remote cabin on the Devon coast, STILL OUT is an album-length collaboration between musician-filmmakers – and childhood friends – Will Cookson and Tom Haverly. A reflection on friendship, landscape and the passing of time, it inspired a road trip from North Yorkshire to North Devon they took together in the summer of 2024, and forms the soundtrack to a film of the same name which had its premiere screening as part of Stroud Film Festival in March 2025.

Like the film, STILL OUT is also an oblique homage to The KLF’s iconic 1990 album Chill Out, which the Gloucestershire-based pair revisited after it turned up unexpectedly a few years back in Tom’s dad’s record collection. Inspired to create their own recording using a similarly free-spirited process, Will and Tom relocated to the Devon coast in late summer 2023, splicing together a 40-minute mix from their personal archive of recordings and found sounds in a remote cabin with no electricity or mobile reception.

"It came together using cut-and-paste techniques, with ongoing shifts and tweaks,” says Will. “The final result was an audio collage that felt like something legendary hip hop producers The Bomb Squad might make - if ambient music was the only material in their sample library."

Using ‘ambient’ as a starting-point rather than an end in itself, they took inspiration from across the musical spectrum – classic-period Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Bill Evans, plus outliers such as 80s singer-songwriter Virginia Astley and the late DJ-producer Andrew Weatherall. The connections, though, are anything but obvious as the audio shifts seamlessly from field recordings and spoken-word interludes to mood pieces and snatches of vintage pop.

Edited and assembled using freely available open source programs, the source material was often radically altered using tools such as “PaulStretch”, a digital sound-morphing algorithm that allows users to stretch audio files to extreme lengths.

"When we found ourselves in a creative slump or unsure how to navigate a tricky part, we'd say, ‘Let's put some syrup on it and slow it down,’” says Tom. “That always helped us get back on track during late-night recording sessions at the cabin."

Part-soundtrack, part-meditative experiment, STILL OUT is intended as a reflection on the mental and emotional shift that occurs when stepping away from the routine of daily life – an album that forms a celebration of our ever-changing relationship to the world around us and the mystery of what it means to pass through time and space.

“The true follow up, 35 years later, to The KLF’s ‘Chill Out’”.
JD Twitch (Optimo).

An ambient journey reflecting on friendship, the British landscape - and The KLF’s landmark album Chill Out

"This record and film are just lovely. You need this in your life. Moo-Moo!” Balearic Mike (Down To The Sea & Back)

"The album is a perfect companion to the KLF classic, utilising the British countryside as the setting, occasionally reminding you that Mother Nature is not to be messed with.” Strictly Kev (DJ Food)

"A beautiful ambient journey into the landscape, taking the listener from reality to dream state and back again. A mystical realm full of mysterious chanting, rattling trains and sounds from the very depths of the earth."
Lally MacBeth & Matthew Shaw (Stone Club)

REISSUE of the legendary debut album. Delmar is the debut album of Argentine stoner rock band, Los Natas, released in 1998 under the legendary Man's Ruin Records. This material was first released in 1996, on cassette, an independent edition the band put out containing eight tracks. It's a highly regarded stoner rock album, a masterpiece within the genre. It's praised for its heavy riffs, beautiful melodies, and overall atmosphere. Fans appreciate its calming, meditative qualities, making it a great choice for relaxation and reflection.

The Sator Arepo, or Sator Square, is an ancient word puzzle comprising five palindromes that's etched on various historical sites throughout the Western world. Its origins are unknown, but the square has long been thought to hold magical properties, used as a charm against illness and evil, to cure insanity or to determine whether someone was guilty of witchcraft. Self-styled "punk ethnomusicologist", acoustician and musician Julien Hairon uses this mystical symbol as the starting point for his debut Judgitzu album in an attempt to reconnect with his Celtic heritage, exploring how its hallowed messages might harmonize with contemporary Tanzanian dance music.Hairon has been traveling across the world for over a decade, collecting field recordings from countries such as Indonesia, Australia, Cambodia, China and Bangladesh, and presenting them on his Les Cartes Postales Sonores label, re-issuing any curious cassettes and CDs he came across on the PetPets' TAPES imprint. It was during this time that he became fascinated by rituals that involved spirits, prompting him to examine his own ancestry when he returned to Brittany. "Many artifacts in the landscape remain," Hairon explains, "and the power of spirits is still palpable." He represents this Celtic mysticism on 'Sator Arepo' with murky drones and magickal synth tones, using xenharmonic scales (tuning outside of standard 12-tone equal temperament) that reach back to the ancient world. These sounds are augmented with fast-paced, sci-fi rhythms informed by his time in Tanzania; "Singeli has contaminated me," admits the producer.The most astonishing example of this is 'Miracle', a thrusting soundsystem experiment that layers serpentine, bagpipe-esque electronic wails over extravagant clusters of blocky percussion. Driven by the frenetic 175BPM pulse that echoes through the streets of Dar Es Salaam - popularized globally by forward-thinking producers like Sisso, Duke and Jay Mitta - Hairon opens up a rare conversation, seeking to draw parallels between today's most urgent dance forms and the archaic rituals of antiquity. On 'Vitalimetre', Hairon drives his sonic palette into the red, harmonizing with Dutch hardstyle and gabber, and splaying distorted drones over maddeningly blown-out kicks and ratcheting percussion. 'L'or Des Fous' takes a more meditative route, prioritizing Hairon's eccentric tonality with expressive sheets of pitch-warped sound that ghost walk across energized, rattling beats.If you heard Hairon's last Judgitzu release 'Umeme / Kelele', described by Boomkat as "one of 2019's deadliest dancefloor sessions," then you'll know how mindboggling this material can be. And with 'Sator Arepo', the French producer deepens his reach, grasping a world that we've almost forgotten and juxtaposing it with a landscape most of us barely comprehend.

A decade after its release, A Fragile Geography returns transformed. This limited edition cassette accompanies the AFG10 anniversary reissue, offering an inspired re-envisioning of Rafael Anton Irisarri’s landmark compositions. Reworks presents distinctive readings of these pieces, with each artist leaving their personal mark on the material. The titles remain unchanged, with the sole exception of “Hiatus,” reborn here as “Ausencia.” Together, these reimaginings extend the emotional cartography of the album into new terrains.

KMRU reframes “Displacement” with expansive, glimmering layers that open into meditative ambient landscapes. Nairobi born and Berlin based, he is known for morphing field recordings into vivid aural experiences, often capturing the texture of footsteps, foliage, and distant city life and weaving them into contemplative soundscapes. In this version he introduces subtle new sounds, including stringlike synths that trace and heighten the piece’s emotional arc. The result invites close listening, offering enveloping tones where the organic and the synthetic gently collide and flow.

Penelope Trappes renders “Reprisal” as a voice-led invocation of the delicate and the intimate. Her wistful vocals bloom with fragile sorrow, rising over shimmering strands of strings to create a sound world at once sacred and shadowed. She is adept at channeling inherited grief into music that is transcendent and otherworldly. The interplay of her voice, the strings, and her use of space and depth draws those qualities into Irisarri’s orbit, imbuing “Reprisal” with the same spiritual weight and clarity that define her most powerful work.

Kevin Richard Martin (a.k.a. The Bug) transforms “Empire Systems” into a cavernous “Iced Mix,” driven by polyrhythmic double bass motifs and sculpted from subterranean pressure and negative space. Known for pushing sound to its physical limits, Martin brings the stark intensity of his dub and noise infused practice into Irisarri’s architecture. The track seethes with harmonic distortion and erupts in white noise rhythms, its brooding low end depth and icy reverberant textures amplifying the tension. Vulnerability and force are set in stark relief, as silences feel as heavy as the bursts of sound themselves. The result is a stark study in atmosphere, restraint and impact, reframed through Martin’s singular lens of sonic mass and low end intensity.

On Side B, Mabe Fratti opens with a cinematic, dreamlike, Lynchian reimagining of “Hiatus” in her native Spanish (“Ausencia”). She threads cello and voice so wondrously that her rendering feels at once hauntingly beautiful and disquieting. Emotionally charged melodies shift in unexpected directions, while her soft, intimate vocals hover above Irisarri’s brooding synth textures. Fratti’s gift for blending experimental and avant pop sensibilities with visceral, emotionally powerful expression shines resplendently here. She gives voice to Irisarri’s reflections on the passage of time and his growing desire to reconnect with his familial roots.

Abul Mogard stretches “Persistence” into a vast drone elegy. A master of patient sound sculpting, Mogard layers evolving waves of analog synths into a dense shroud that radiates its own internal light. Gradual surges of tone and subtle harmonic shifts emphasize the piece’s endurance and inevitability. Irisarri’s original composition, in Mogard's hands, becomes a rumination on time’s unrelenting flow. Melancholy and transcendence coexist in equal measure in this engulfing, cathartic rework.

William Basinski and Gary Thomas Wright close the cycle with a spectral version of “Secretly Wishing for Rain.” Basinski’s field recordings of Reseda rainfall and birdsong, which open and close the rework, add a personal touch and evoke the imagined sound of a grainy film reel flickering to life. The piece suspends Irisarri’s yearning for the Pacific Northwest, lodging it hazily between memory, place and an unreachable dream. It feels like a fading recollection, half forgotten and half felt. A final gesture that dissolves the album into vapor, leaving the listener adrift in its lingering afterglow.

Mastered with great care by Stephan Mathieu and featuring a remixed version of the original artwork by Daniel Castrejón, this edition refracts the language of the original through new prisms. Less a return than a passage, across time, across interpretation, into uncharted emotional realms.

Returning with its final instalments, Die Schachtel's Decay Music series extends its explorations of inspired contemporary experimental efforts of the ambient, ethereal, and emotively abstract with Luigi Turra and Elio Martusciello’s “Liminale” and Sergio Armaroli and David Toop’s “And I Entered Into Sleep”, two astounding electroacoustic gestures of blurred space and time, plumbing complexity of meaning bound to sonority. Creatively groundbreaking and inspired, radically rethinking the terms of what ambient music can be perceived to be, they stand among the most striking efforts to appear within the series to date.

An aural bridge between two distinct generations of Italian experimental musicians, “Liminale” is the debut collaborative outing from the creative partnership of Luigi Turra and Elio Martusciello. Active within the context for roughly two decades, Turra (b. 1975) is a reductionist/electroacoustic composer, noted from his tense deployment of concrete and acoustic sources — particularly small sounds and noises — whose work threads the balance between silence, tactile auditory perception, and aleatoric music. Martusciello (b. 1959), on the other hand, is a musician and composer working across the fields of acousmatic and electroacoustic composition, sound installation, multi-media and audiovisual art, and computer music improvisation, who is widely celebrated for both his solo efforts and his collaborations with Eugene Chadbourne, Mike Cooper, Alvin Curran, Chris Cutler, Rhodri Davies, Iancu Dumitrescu, Michel Godard, Tim Hodgkinson, Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris, Jérôme Noetinger, Tony Oxley, Evan Parker, Z'EV, and others.

A single, nearly 40 minute work, extending across the two sides of the LP, “Liminale” — as its title eludes — is an exploration of the liminal through sonic means: “places that exist on the threshold, transitional spaces suspended between a before and an after, between the real and the evanescent” conceiving the soundscape as “a liminal place, a space to be inhabited without the certainty of where it leads.” Unfurling like a labyrinth navigated in darkness, the piece’s first half is marked by sparseness and restraint, as slow-paced guitar tones and harmonics thread silences and resonant ambience within a sprawling sense of space, delicately populated by tiny sounds, fleeting punctuations drawn from undeterminable sources, vocal utterances, and the unexpected appearance of intoxicating piano tones.

As “Liminale” progresses into its second half, Turra and Martusciello enter a more densely populated notion of the in between. No less defined by the presence of space and mystery, discreet textures rustle and writhe within passages of pure concrete abstraction and a fragmented, stretched sense of musicality: long-tones, metallic pulses, minimal vibrations, processed vocalizations, guitar harmonics, and deconstructed piano melodies, buried in spectral, gauzy hazes drifting from beyond arm’s reach within an imagistic and immersive landscape of profoundly meditative scope, where each sonic element flirts the line between emergence and disappearance.

Intimate, fragile, and achingly beautiful, “Liminale”, Luigi Turra and Elio Martusciello’s debut collaboration, is a masterstroke in sound-craft and composition, revealing the potency of meaning locked within transitional spaces and the undefined, and imbuing silence with monumental gravity and weight. Mastered for vinyl by Giuseppe Ielasi, and taking electroacoustic minimalism to an etherial extreme, “Liminale” is issued as the ninth entry in Die Schachtel’s Decay Music series, highlighting inspired contemporary experimental efforts of the ambient, ethereal, and emotively abstract.