Suche:no boundaries

Dumitrescu, co-founder of the label, breaks his own boundaries with a 4-track EP exploring hypnotic structures and stripped-back techno aesthetics.

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.

With a steely sound matching fathoms-deep echo chambers with metallic textures and precision drums, Sciama arrives on Samurai Music to press into the inspiring hinterland between techno and drum & bass.

Sciama is the production alias for Michael Watters, a producer who since 2019 has carved out a formidable reputation across a stellar run of releases on ASC's Auxiliary label. While his music references UK bass, transcendental techno and industrial, the end result is a taut, focused journey through fractured, weighty rhythms and vast, ranging atmospherics tilted towards the darkness.
Between Veils is testament to Watters' refined production, steeped in intensely detailed and layered sound design in constant fluid motion, whether locked to the grid or shifting across the surface of the track like grayscale snow drifts. Noise becomes a subtle tool in his hands, capable of delicacy as much as abrasion, and discord evokes a haunting beauty if you listen past the clangorous overtones he elicits from his pads.

For all the writhing, artful sonics, there is still ample weight in the Sciama sound to hold court over a sound system. 'Figures In Mist' rests on a constant half time cycle underpinned by monolithic bass pulses and 'Ghost Trail' finds deadly energy in the faintest flicker of double-time hats above the slow march of a 4/4 kick clocking around 85BPM. Restraint is paramount, even in the fuller rhythm section that drives 'Anima Trace', creating tension through what isn't sequenced as much as what is. 'Veil Of Mirrors' has an especially punchy kick propelling the cavernous echos and ripples that shape out yet another vivid soundscape, but at all times Watters keeps a tight grip on his arrangement to keep the energy simmering just below boiling point.
Moving well beyond the boundaries of any specific genre, Between Veils winds upas a strong, independent statement on the meeting point between broad influences and clear intentions - a formidable addition to Samurai Music's explorations beyond drum & bass and Sciama's steadily evolving, singular style.

2025 Repress

Conundrum Records delves into the depths of techno with a riveting release from Hitam, the Dutch producer who's renowned for his immersive soundscapes, stimulating textures and dynamic low-end. The "Subterranean EP" is a compelling journey through shadowy, bass-driven terrain, meticulously designed for powerful club systems. Despite the variety in tempo, the EP's relentless energy and thunderous low-end form a cohesive thread throughout.

The EP kicks off with "Nagini", where minimalist, driving drum patterns intertwine with glitchy synths and eerie atmospheres, setting the stage for what's to come.
"Hoia Baciu" intensifies the experience, maintaining a dark, brooding energy that envelops the listener in its foreboding vibe. "Kaelago" shifts gears slightly, slowing the tempo but upping the complexity with intricate sound design and broken beat transitions that showcase Hitam's deft production skills.

Adding to the EP's allure, renowned techno artist Rene Wise contributes a hypnotic, tribal-infused remix of "Kaelago," layering new depths onto the original and enhancing its already potent impact. For those seeking an even more intense experience, Hitam's alternative version of "Kaelago" serves as a digital bonus, pushing the boundaries of auditory immersion.

"Subterranean" is a masterclass in crafting dark, cerebral techno, with Hitam firmly establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with in the genre. This EP is not just a collection of tracks but an exploration of mood and atmosphere, making it an essential listen for those who appreciate techno's deeper, more introspective side.

As rRoxymore, Hermione Frank has been exploring the outer edges of the dance floor and producing music that goes beyond traditional genre boundaries for more than a decade. In that time she has covered plenty of ground from caustic and abrasive techno to long-form and immersive grooves, always with a focus on contrasting tempo, texture and tone. On previous albums she intertwined the electronic and the acoustic with elements of psychedelia and jazz. With Juggling Dualities, Frank takes a sideways look at New Age and Wellness culture.

Writing the album came about after many months of being unable to create during a complicated personal time which left her lacking inspiration, feeling creatively stuck yet emotionally uprooted. What helped was distance - taking time and space to disconnect from the struggle. That brought a different rhythm to life and a fresh perspective that allowed exploration without any expectations. A six-week surge of intense creativity followed in which the majority of the album was written. As she explains, "The record represents a journey of reconnection that conveys an underlying message of hope and healing at its core. I think it is my most honest
work to date."

Initially conceived as a New Age project but with a signature personal twist and some subtle humour, there is a familiarity to Juggling Dualities. It is warm and comforting with a sound palette that is refined but familiar - there are soothing signifiers and organic designs that nod to the motifs of New Age but passed through a more contemporary lens.

Juggling Dualities is an invitation to reconnect with yourself. It's music that encourages you to take a pause, be in the moment and reflect on the fact that no matter what challenges come your way, they shall eventually pass.

The fourth release on ALT, the sub label of Cartulis Music, sees the return of AV1, the freshly formed French duo composed of Chris Carrier and Le Loup. Following the success of Waves + Plants Pt. 1 (ALT004.1), the pair now delivers the highly anticipated second chapter, pushing the boundaries of their sonic exploration

AV1 is the result of a deep-rooted connection between two of the most respected names in the Parisian underground scene. Chris Carrier, a prolific producer and DJ since the late ‘90s, has carved out a legacy with his unmistakable approach to house and techno. Le Loup, equally revered for his refined touch and forward-thinking productions, brings his own signature style to the table. Together, they craft an electrifying synergy built on a shared love for acid, deep grooves, and classicist house/techno foundations.

Waves + Plants Pt. 2 (ALT004.2) expands on the energy of the first release, offering a fivetrack journey through a diverse soundscape. Blurring the lines between trance, techno, breaks, and experimental sounds, the EP showcases AV1’s ability to merge different sonic textures into a cohesive, cutting-edge release. From hypnotic acid sequences to raw drum programming and ethereal atmospheres, each track presents a unique side of their creative vision.

This latest installment solidifies AV1’s place as a standout project in contemporary electronic music and reaffirms ALT’s commitment to releasing forward-thinking, genre-defying sounds.

Following standout releases on acclaimed underground imprints like Klasse Wrecks, Planet Trip, Superior Elevation, and more, Brooklyn-based producer GEE DEE steps into a new chapter with the launch of his very own label, FREE UNIVERSE. The debut release, IT’S A FEELING, is a vibrant four-tracker that showcases his deep-rooted love for hypnotic grooves, playful textures, and dance floor-ready energy.

The title track, “IT’S A FEELING, ” leads the charge — a punchy, genre-blurring cut that captures the essence of GEE DEE’s sound: raw, emotive, and rhythmic. “ENERGY LOOP” follows with a bright, bouncing bassline and cheeky percussion, keeping spirits high and bodies moving.

On the B-side, the legendary KIM ANN FOXMAN delivers a sped-up, psychedelic reimagining of “IT’S A FEELING. ” The remix brings a darker, tunneling energy to the original, twisting it into a late-night trip that’s equal parts hypnotic and propulsive. Closing things out is “TWO VOICES” — a heady,

'90s-inspired roller drenched in spaced-out textures and woozy synths. A bold first statement from FREE UNIVERSE, this release marks a fresh new chapter for GEE DEE — producer, DJ, and now label head — continuing his journey of pushing boundaries across the spectrum of underground dance music.

Lars Bartkuhn returns to Rush Hour with “See The Light”, as deep and complex as we have come to expect but as always his ever-present hunt for new inspiration and unique approaches is clearly evident across all 3 mixes of this beautifully deep yet pulsating track!

Originally written as a final foray into house music for the legendary Needs co-founder, this production aimed to “push boundaries within the world of electronic dance music, integrate fresh new elements, bring new compositional perspectives to the listener and to create overall rewarding experiences.”

It’s a deeply personal track, best summarised by the incredible piano solo in the Full Experience Mix. In Lars’ own words, “I am ten million light years away from being a good pianist, but for some reason I NEED to play those kind of things…even if they are raw, primitive and incomplete and lack parameters like elegance, fluidity and wisdom - I need to express myself in that very moment in this exact way.” It’s these unrestrained moments of brilliance that create rich palettes of sound with deep textures, organic rhythms and joyful melodies that keep your ear constantly engaged.

The Full Experience Mix is a near-13 minute trip through lush vocals, complex percussion, deep chords and raw piano solos that guides the listener through the changing motions of “See The Light”. Backed by two dub mixes, Inner Experience hones in on the keys and synths - truly elevating those striking notes. Opening with atmospheric percussion, the Dub Reprise settles into a chugging rhythm that brings the drums to the forefront.

“When a musician/composer really goes ‘all in’ there is almost nothing impossible. If you really pour out your heart and give all the sweat and tears you have you create a kind of zone where everything fits together in mysterious ways.” - Lars Bartkuhn

LILAS06 — FEDO
For its sixth chapter, Lilas Records shines the spotlight on a rising voice in the Eastern European minimal movement: FEDO.

Hailing from Ukraine and of Greek descent, FEDO is more than a producer — he’s an architect of acoustic space. With a seasoned background as a DJ and sound designer, he bypasses genre boundaries, carving out his own distinct path between deep minimalism and textural innovation.

On LILAS06, he delivers four original tracks that encapsulate his sonic philosophy:

Precision without coldness, groove without compromise.

Feather-light percussion meets rolling basslines, wrapped in immersive atmospheres and delicate spatial play.

Here, minimalism is no longer austere — it becomes expressive, hypnotic, and profoundly human.

Limited to an exclusive run of 200 copies, this release has already garnered fervent support from a distinguished roster of industry heavyweights including Raresh, Reiss, Ramona Yacef, NTFO, Enzo Siragusa, Silat Beksi, and more.

LILAS06 isn’t just another record — it stands poised to leave an indelible mark on the global underground music scene.

After what seems like an aeon of anticipation, Yugen Blakrok returns bolder than ever with The Illusion of Being, a raw, fearless exploration of emotion and resilience. This album is a call to triumph. Through poetic lyricism and experimental soundscapes, this project offers the listener a journey into the heart of uncertainty and the power of perseverance. Created and recorded in a world in flux, The Illusion of Being reflects the artist's evolution as a storyteller and resonates directly with the era that shaped her. Driven by incisive lyrics andsoundscapes blending grunge, trip-hop, and 90s spirit, this project tests the boundaries of alternative hip-hop. Here, rhythm speaks louder than reason, and the acceptance of "Being" becomes the thread that ties each track together. This album captures a bold new chapter in Yugen Blakrok's discography. While rooted in the lyrical mastery and poetic precision that fans cherish, it marks a departure from the familiar, embracing a more unfiltered and experimental approach. The collaborations seem purposeful, and match this intensity: Sa-Roc delivers combative and sisterly energy,Cambatta brings his visceral urgency, while Hannah Allen offers a touch both delicate and impactful. Instrumentally, the arrangements dare to break new ground: wailing electric guitars,enchanting flutes, and hypnotic beats create a striking sonic alchemy. As described by Yugen in three words: Free. Involved. Anti.Free from convention. Involved in the fight. Anti-establishment. In many ways this album is a sonic manifesto. Each track resonates as a call to rebellion, an anthem for those who refuse to bow down. The Illusion of Being is not just a work of art; it’s a statement: for freedom, for community, against oppression. A mirror of our collectivestruggles and a light for those who keep moving forward. It promises its listeners a deeply personal connection, offering a glimmer of hope amidst despair and a soundtrack for their fight.

Italian DJ Plant Texture drops ambitious techno odyssey 'Mondo Nuovo' on Mutual
Rytm sub-label, X.

Bari-based underground mainstay Dona Basile, aka DJ Plant Texture, has been crafting forward-thinking techno for a decade, releasing on leading labels from Ilian Tape to Tresor Berlin. Adding to his rich catalogue, his label debut on SHDW's Mutual Rytm sub-label X is a homage to the spirit of space travel. With the label boss already a long-time fan and having dropped tracks from this EP in his sets for a while, the partnership creates an ideal match for an artist and label looking to push the boundaries of the genre. With Basile's distinctive style perfectly fitting with the label's vision, each of the productions provides a tribute to space exploration - fusing analogue hardware and deep rhythmic invention while channelling everything from early sci-fi cinema to the 80s ambient soundtracks. "Space exploration is the ultimate metaphor for creative freedom. This album is my way of sonically mapping the cosmos, not through melody but through mood, modulation and motion", notes Basile.

Opener 'Wormhole' is a raw, driving sound with synth pulses and jacked-up drums for peak time chaos, while 'Echoes' evokes ramps it up further with panel-beating percussive loops, earth-shattering bass and twisted stabs. The title track pairs more physical and booming drums with introspective synth craft that encourages deep thought. 'Flex The Beat' is the first of two digital only cuts and offers a chaotic collision of overdrive percussion, manic vocal loops and reversed stabs for utter dance floor carnage, before 'Let It Go' (Jungle Mix) provides a dark exploration of
frenzied jungle breakbeats with drilling bass to close the offering.

A nocturnal ride through the magnetic waves of an imaginary club that never sleeps, where groove becomes ritual and the dancefloor an extension of the body. Francisco & Cosmo Dance – aka Francesco De Bellis and Cosimo Mandorino – orchestrate a mechanical and naif dance between man and machine, where synths chase each other and drum machines dictate tight, unrelenting beats. “Go Go Dance” is a concentrated dose of analog groove, electronic funk, no-wave pulses, and retro-futurism.

The Extended Mix transcends radio boundaries, diving into a hypnotic, fluid, body-driven dimension: a sonic tide echoing cosmic italo, primitive house, and off-kilter disco, shaping a soundscape for dancefloors from another dimension.

The House Mix, finely edited by Whodamanny, is a manifesto for the floor: pure rhythmic dynamite, made to ignite bodies and let them vibrate freely. A shared and refined vision of house music, where instinct and style fuse into a single voice.

“Go Go Dance” doesn’t aim studio perfection; it craves sensory truth – the kind born of urgency, space, and the pleasure of repetition. An anthem to the most authentic and lived-in club culture, where music becomes sweat, fantasy, and freedom once again.

Gradually, the latest album by Julien Mier, is a sonic journey that delves into the transitions of life, identity, and the blurred boundaries between art and personal growth. With a trilingual brain, Mier reflects on how language shifts have shaped his sense of self throughout his life and the music that he writes. Gradually is his exploration of shapelessness—an urge to break free from rigid musical genres and get closer to his most fundamental expression. The album is composed of nine tracks, each representing a distinct cultural and linguistic influence, all tied together by the theme of gradual evolution.

The first section, Ciel, Soleil, and Espace (French for Sky, Sun, and Space), draws on Mier’s French heritage, evoking the feeling of childhood memories bathed in a warm, nostalgic glow. This fluid, atmospheric section mirrors the soft, ever-changing air, symbolising a time of pure, untainted intention. It feels like a hazy, sepia-toned dream, as fleeting and elusive as the scent of an old friend. The gentle flow of the music mirrors the flow of wind, effortlessly shifting from one element to the next, a reflection of the innocence and clarity of youth.

The second section, Steen, Zee, and Zand (Dutch for Stone, Sea, and Sand), channels the influence of Mier’s childhood in a small Dutch dune village. These tracks are grounded in the hard-edged textures of electronic dance music, a genre that introduced him to a world of rhythm and movement. With a sonic palette of blues, greys, and more defined shapes, this section captures the solid, enduring forces of nature—earth, water, and stone. It’s a sonic landscape rooted in stability, a foundation from which everything can grow. The tracks build from the fluidity of the first section into more structured, rhythmic territories, mirroring the natural transition from childhood innocence to the discovery of deeper, more grounded musical influences.

The final section, Scrap (a collaborative track with the Japanese producer Daisuke Tanabe), Soil, and Spark, dives into the exploration of the world beyond familiar borders. Mier’s relocation from the Netherlands to Australia in 2016 is reflected in these pieces, which grapple with the contrast and complexity of different cultures and environments. These tracks are tinged with rust-red hues and a sense of eroded beauty, evoking a more fragmented, distorted view of the world. The music here is marked by tension, conflict, and the erosion of once-solid forms—symbolic of the digital and ecological storms that shape our modern existence. The closing piece, Spark, signals a new beginning, a hopeful initiation into the cycle of renewal.

The album artwork for Gradually is a conclusive visual representation of this journey, captured in the final frame of an analog film roll that began in the Netherlands and concluded with an image of the streets of Sydney, Australia—a perfect metaphor for the album’s narrative of gradual transition and discovery.

IN TRANSIT by the duo Lia Kohl & Zander Raymond (Chicago) is built around a collection of field recordings made in spaces of transit —bus stops, train stations, taxis—blended with the accordion and modular synthesizers textures of Zander Raymond, and the cello and synthesizers of Lia Kohl.

The record features eight instrumental tracks, composed from these raw captures of transient zones, harmonized and enriched with musical treatments and arrangements. Combining acoustic and electronic sources, these compositions create an atmosphere that is both familiar and dreamlike, blurring the boundaries between the real and the imaginary.

Lia Kohl is a cellist, composer, and sound artist based in Chicago. Her broad and varied practice includes composition and performance, installation, improvisation, and collaboration. Her work is rooted in curiosity and patience, exploring the everyday and profound potential of sound. Following her album Normal Sounds (Moon Glyph)—an ode to the noise of daily life, transforming the hum of refrigerators and the ticking of turn signals into moments of unexpected beauty—Lia Kohl continues this exploration of the sounds that surround us with IN TRANSIT.

Zander Raymond is an interdisciplinary artist and musician based in Chicago. In his visual work, he improvises with various materials to create collages. His music is also rooted in improvisation, using modular synthesizers to construct soundscapes that take nonlinear approaches to composition.

Voom Voom Records and Fred Spider presents, The Future Is Now, along with The Tune Recreation Committee. Mandla Mlangeni's project, co-produced and including some compositions from the virtuoso Afrika Mkhize, this masterwork transcends boundaries, weaving South African jazz heritage with global influences into a tapestry of sound that feels both timeless and revolutionary.

The formidable core ensemble expands its sonic palette with extraordinary guest collaborators including classical flautist Khanyi Mthethwa and 2020 Standard Bank Young Artist Sisonke Xonti, and Mark Fransman, Reza Khota, Yonela Mnana, Nick Williams, Haile Supreme...The album pays heartfelt tribute to giants who shaped their journey—Bra Hugh Masekela in the stirring “Wena Fela” and trumpet innovator Roy Hargrove in the soulful “RH”—while confidently establishing TRC’s distinctive musical identity.

These ten compositions represent the pinnacle of creative exploration and ensemble interplay. The Tune Recreation Committee continues to push boundaries and reimagine the possibilities of South African jazz with uncompromising vision and breathtaking artistry.

Remastered for the vinyl by Simbad.

Explosive UK producer Bullet Tooth — one of the most talked-about names in bass music for 2025 — crashes onto Time Is Now, the cutting-edge sister label of Shall Not Fade, with a thunderous three-track EP that delivers nothing short of pure, sub-heavy chaos. Known for his genre-warping blend of UKG, breaks, jungle, and grime-inflected basslines, Bullet Tooth has been making serious waves in the underground with his uncompromising sound and high-octane DJ sets.

Drawing influence from the raw energy of early dubstep and the precision of modern UK club sounds, Bullet Tooth’s productions are built to devastate dancefloors — and this latest release is no exception. Packed with seismic low-end pressure, razor-sharp percussion, and twisted vocal chops, each track is a statement of intent from a producer firmly in his stride.

This marks Bullet Tooth’s debut on Time Is Now, a label that has rapidly become a cornerstone of the UK’s contemporary bass scene. Since its launch, Time Is Now has earned a reputation for championing the next generation of bass-heavy innovators — from UKG and breaks to jungle and speed garage — offering a platform for artists who push the boundaries of sound system culture with forward-thinking flair.

With this release, Bullet Tooth not only cements his place among the UK’s most exciting producers but also adds another essential entry to Time Is Now’s ever-growing catalogue of future classics.

As most of us now live in a world saturated with information, this album feels like a reflection of how the modern world might sound if it were to process its own chaos through a unified scream. Hailing from the highlands of Bandung, West Java, a city where tradition and modernization intertwine in the rhythm of daily life, Xin Lie unpretentiously translates this cultural fusion into a sonically rich and rhythmically bold debut LP.

The artist’s roots in the hardcore and punk scenes reverberate throughout the album, though they’ve been reshaped and refined for the club. There’s an undeniable pleasure in experiencing the chaos Xin Lie channels—irregular beats, dynamic frequencies, and disjointed grooves collide and expand, each track laced with a sense of unpredictable energy. Yet even in its most chaotic moments, the music feels deliberate, its edges softened by a sense of compositional care.

The album reveals a strange duality: tracks that seem to beckon you to the dance floor but never quite let you settle there. Frequencies flicker and fluctuate in patterns that feel just slightly off-grid, as though resisting traditional structures. Yet, amidst the digital textures, Xin Lie weaves in organic sounds—snippets of native conversations or environmental noise—creating layers that feel both intimate and expansive.It’s fair to say this album extends far beyond the boundaries of today’s club music.

Picture this: you’re moving through your daily routines—mundane, repetitive—and suddenly, the music shifts your perspective. It reframes the ordinary as something surreal, as though it’s deconstructing itself in real-time, breaking into fragments or conjuring entirely new forms. Perhaps it’s best imagined as the soundtrack to a multi-sensory art installation or a performance staged not in a gallery but in an unassuming house down your street. Who’s to say where it might take you?

LP vinyl only release + 4 page liner notes (comes with hype sticker)

The percussive new age soundtracks of '80s and early '90s Japanese TV, anime and manga built alternative worlds and pushed boundaries in the process.

When Japanese composer Yas-Kaz left Tokyo for Bali in the mid 1970s he had little idea of how influential his trip would become. In studying the storied art of gamelan, the jazz and avant-garde percussionist opened a door to a world of sound and rhythm left behind by the West. The music he and his contemporaries made would become known as new age. It also happened to soundtrack the golden era of anime.

Awash with money and with the prerogative to entertain the burgeoning middle classes, anime in the 1980s experienced a creative and commercial boom. Not constricted by generic expectations, production houses such as the now renowned Studio Ghibli were able to experiment liberally with both form and content. And with it came the space for composers to be similarly adventurous.

TV, Anime & Manga New Age Soundtracks 1984-1993 charts this moment across eight tracks spanning classics of the genre and previously unknown rarities. The collection brings together music that found kinship in electronic and acoustic instrumentation, often combining spiritual or environmental themes with percussive, varied and highly refined syncopations of non-Western musical traditions.

Among them is ‘Kaneda’ by Geinoh Yamashirogumi, the shape-shifting group of self-styled musicians, anthropologists and computer scientists that masterminded the soundtrack to game-changing dystopian anime Akira - and with whom the sound, tuning and breakneck speed of Balinese gamelan has become indelibly entwined.

Reflecting the desires of the era to reach beyond Japan’s borders, many of the soundtracks featured were commissioned for narratives set in distant lands or alternative worlds. There’s violinist and composer Norihiro Tsuru’s ‘Farsighted Person’, written for The Heroic Legend of Arslān, set in ancient Persia; Yas-Kaz’s own ‘Hei (Theme of Shikioni)’, for period sci-fi manga & anime series Peacock King - Spirit Warrior; and two tracks - Tassili N’Ajjer and Fiesta Del Fuego - from Yoichiro Yoshikawa’s soundtrack to NHK’s proto-Planet Earth series The Miracle Planet.

Such was the variety and quality of the music produced, if there is a guiding principle to the tracks collected here it is a sense of escapism and adventure that came with the confluence of modern electronic instruments and a fascination with percussive traditions.

Elsewhere, pioneering children’s TV composer Chumei Watanabe’s ‘Fushigi Song’ (performed by a vocal group Korogi ‘72) offers a trippy and infectious groove with sonic similarities to Don Cherry’s ‘Brown Rice’; little-known jazz-funk library group Columbia Orchestra showcase the best of Tokyo’s session musicians on ‘Hearts Beats - Theme for Andrew Glasgow’; before lawyer-turned-composer Kan Ogasawara closes out the compilation with a dramatic flourish on ‘Gishin Anki’.

Following on from Time Capsule’s acclaimed deep-dive into the world of manga & anime synth-pop in 2022, this vinyl only collection is set to broaden and diversify an understanding of how soundtracks shaped the sound of new age music in Japan for a generation.

Curators: Kay Suzuki, Rintaro Sekizuka (Vinyl Delivery Service)
Artwork: Tu-yang

Introducing the second release under the Statica imprint “MyCn18: Engraved Hourglass”

STATICA002 comes from Berlin-based artist Johannes Mai aka John Spring. John's productions have gained legendary notoriety over the past decade with his early releases revered for their timeless sound and experimental edge, whilst always keeping to a ritual of dancefloor compatibility. An influential artist who pushed the boundaries of minimalism and helped lay the foundations that have sculpted the sound of the present. It's a great honour to be releasing his first EP in over 13 years with 3 never before heard tracks from the mid 00’s.

“Train Ride” is an energetic A1 with pacey drums and a marching topline, while the A2 “Ravebehave” delves deep into spring reverb mastery and wavering synths. The B1 “Melodic Ten” begins with rolling percussion and uplifts with the whispers of enchanting vocals. B2 comes as a remix of Melodic Ten by Fabric resident and stand out London artist Harry McCanna aka Henry Hyde! stripping it back even further and introducing his own sinister synths, growling bass and groove-led drum patterns. It's a pleasure to have Harry featured on the release.

MyCn 18 is a young planetary nebula in the southern constellation Musca. It was discovered by Romano Coradi and Hugo Schwarz in 1991. MyCn 18's hourglass shape is produced by the expansion of a fast stellar wind within a slowly expanding cloud which is denser near its equator than its poles. The central star of the nebula is unknown.

Credits-:

A massive thank you to John Spring & Harry McCanna for their Contributions. Distributed by Deejay.de. Mastering by Justin Drake. Design and Curation by Alix

For years, whispers circulated through the jazz scenes of Denmark and Poland - rumours of a lost recording session featuring the legendary Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and a group of Scandinavian and Polish musicians. Now, nearly a decade after the session and seven years after Stanko's passing, these long-awaited recordings are finally seeing the light of day. The project originated at Vallekilde Højskole in Denmark, where Stanko was invited to teach at JazzDanmark's annual Summer Session. A storied program that has hosted luminaries including Bill Frisell and Anat Cohen, the summer school became the birthplace of this unexpected ensemble. Here, alongside a dynamic ensemble of young musicians, Stanko found renewed inspiration, embracing their compositions as much as his own - a rare occurrence for an artist known for leading his own groups. Scandinavian Art Ensemble with Tomasz Stanko is the result: two albums of expansive, deeply expressive music that merge the melancholic depth of Polish jazz with the spacious, atmospheric qualities of the Scandinavian sound. As trumpeter Tomasz Dabrowski recalls, Stanko wasn't just a mentor - he was an equal, driven by curiosity and the desire to push boundaries. "He wanted to play our music. He was always listening, always searching." Across these two albums recorded at The Village Recordings in 2016, listeners will hear Stanko's unmistakable tone interwoven with compositions by both himself and the ensemble members. Pieces like 'The Dark Eyes of Martha Hirsch' and 'Before the Rain' showcase not just his signature lyricism, but also his willingness to step back, listen, and let the younger generation shape the sound. Beyond his unmistakable sound, Stanko's influence was about energy - his presence elevated those around him. Bassist Richard Andersson put it simply: "He brings together the energies, and makes us all play better than usual." This project captures that essence: a legendary artist meeting the next generation on equal footing, creating something entirely unexpected. A decade after the session, the members of the Scandinavian Art Ensemble have forged their own paths, shaping the jazz landscapes of Copenhagen, Malmö, Reykjavik, and beyond. But the impact of their time with Stanko remains profound. "Releasing these albums is about more than just the music," D?browski says. "It's about preserving the spirit of Stanko - his generosity, his curiosity, his way of bringing people together. Even after all these years, his presence can still be felt in every note we played."