quête:persona

The creative bond between Atjazz and Fred Everything is a story decades in the making. It began in 1998 at The Bomb in Nottingham during a DiY label night—a label through which they both released music. That first encounter sparked a lasting friendship and a steady exchange of ideas that would continue for many years. While they collaborated regularly and remixed each other’s work, it wasn’t until the summer of 2022 that they committed to making a full-length album.

The project took shape during an 8-day stay at Martin’s (Atjazz) home in the Midlands of England, where they set themselves the challenge of writing one track per day. Their shared musical language allowed ideas to move quickly, with some tracks forming in under an hour. Over the next three years, the material was carefully developed alongside their respective album projects: Atjazz’s Starbase 17, Fred Everything’s JUNO Nominated Love, Care, Kindness & Hope, and All Is Well’s A Break In Time.

A final session in Montreal in 2024, coinciding with Fred’s 50th birthday, brought the album into focus. From there, the duo invited a select group of world-class collaborators, including Jorge Bezerra (The Joe Zawinul Syndicate / St Germain), Octavio N. Santos (SiR, Lupe Fiasco), Clyde Beats, Ernesto & The Basement Gospel, and Dominique Fils-Aimé.

The result is a personal, well-constructed record that draws on the spirit of 90s deep house while applying three decades of experience to a deeply rooted, forward-thinking sound. It is a sonic testament that honours their mutual love of synthesizers, beat making, and sound design.

It is a project that took 8 days to start, 3 years to finish, and 30 years to perfect.

Parris returns to his and Call Super’s can you feel the sun imprint with Drippin’. A four-track love letter to the amber-lit glow of communal field maneuvers in the dusk on his most house-focused and personal release yet.

Continuing the themes explored on 2024’s Passionfruit EP, Parris embarks further down his unparalleled sound path on Drippin’. His latest solo outing draws inspiration from vivid memories of yesteryear, particularly experiences at Watching Trees Festival and various trips to Amsterdam, and subsequently constructed with friends in mind to play out. The resulting four tracks encompasses some of his most intimate material to date.

The title track bursts with measured fervour and a raptor-like throb, percussive configurations in tight pistons which induce rave friction hysterics across the dancefloor melee. Got Me Feelin’ dramatically switches tact, a sentimental roller entangled in swooning pads and R’n’B vocals while swigging lovingly from the ecky spring. True Vargo stomps further with acute hedonism, a sun-descending swooner that flows effortlessly in melodic serenity. Closer Crooning In The Trees leans most wayward, an evolving scene architected by Parris’ uncanny samples and disassociated groove that purrs with wide-eyed wonder. Another stand-out release from one of UK club’s most unique voices.

Visionary producer Ibrahim Alfa Jr, who's been traversing the rave's farthest fringes since the late '90s, returns with his most focused and concise set to date, an anthology of undulating, bass-heavy experiments that surveys techno and its distorted history, printing fractured pulses and cybernetic synths over vanishing snapshots of jazz, funk, trip-hop, broken beat, dub and ambient music. It's a body of work that coalesced during a difficult time for Alfa.

After returning to Brighton and sobriety in 2022, he was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism, subsequently suffering two debilitating heart attacks. With his immune system compromised, isolation was the only option, so for months on end Alfa devoted each waking hour to his art, recording samples, building digital synths and effects and meticulously sequencing some of his waviest, most experimental material to date. Over this period he finished over 500 tracks, writing impulsively and constantly challenging himself. "There was nothing to hold me back," he explains. "I just had music, I didn't know if I would see the next day."

Now recovered from his ordeal, Alfa looks back at this prolific period with optimism and fondness. It was a chance for him to reconnect with his art holistically, writing purely for himself without any outside influence. Because, at this stage in his life, Alfa has already been through a series of artistic evolutions. When he was still just a teenager, he penned a slew of grinding, jacking techno 12"s (under a variety of mysterious monikers) in the late '90s before re-emerging a decade ago with the acclaimed 'Hidden By The Leaves', an album made up of deeply personal archival tracks that were thought to have been lost. A few years later, Alfa returned wholeheartedly with a series of records for Mille Plateaux that redrew the boundaries of his "Black political music without words." And on 'Infinite Black Inside', those different strands are muddled with Alfa's profound life experiences and he expresses himself free of any self-imposed boundaries, writing quickly on a hybrid analog-digital setup to document as many ideas as possible.

There's a palpable sense of liberation that drives the album's opening track, 'Subutrax', lubricating polyrhythms that isolate the connective tissue between footwork and Detroit techno as they slip between looped electric piano vamps and vaporous synths. On 'Naked Lunchbreak' meanwhile, the beat generation's excesses are illustrated by mesmeric fast-paced acoustic drums that Alfa balances out with brassy drones and euphoric keys. He captures rubbery hits from a Ghanaian djembe on 'Drum Slinger', re-sequencing them into seismic waves that rumble underneath live woodwind blasts. And on 'Capture', decelerated breaks and garbled voices tumble into humid pads, suspending the album somewhere between the chill-out room and the night sky. It's a record of new beginnings and fresh narratives that collapses the hardcore continuum, revealing a sonic signature that's Alfa's alone.

Convergence is an ambient album formed through a series of morning rituals during rehabilitation following a severe medical event and an extended hospital stay. After weeks immersed in the constant alarms, beeps, and environmental signals of medical equipment, the act of listening itself became recalibrated. The music was performed and assembled using glass marimba, flute, and analog synthesizers, with each instrument treated as a source of resonance and gradually dissected through spectral analysis—allowing melody to emerge from fragments through repetition, attention, and daily practice, where synthesis functions not as traditional composition but as an exchange of signals.


Working slowly and intuitively, Stardust Multiplier approaches sound as a communicative medium between humans, the natural environment, and non-ordinary states of perception. Motifs evolve through repetition and subtle variation, informed by ceremonial music, mythic structures, and speculative communication frameworks associated with non-human intelligence—not as narrative devices, but as metaphors for attuned listening and pattern recognition.

Rather than moving toward resolution, Convergence documents moments of alignment—instances where intention, system, and environment briefly synchronize. The result is a restrained, deeply focused record, less concerned with atmosphere than attention, where synthesis functions as both a grounding practice and a method of inquiry.

“My auntie asked me what’s my path?” spits Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon on his de but from the celebrated Lex Records. The lyric relatably references the cross roads he’s at in his current life, especially as someone right on the cusp of rap stardom. “Recently I’ve been thinking more and more about what comes next in my life,” the artist reveals.


It’s fair to say Ogbon’s Lex LP features less of the sh*t-talking court jester of old. Instead, there’s more of an imperfect man re-examining past mistakes so he can avoid any future forks in the road. There’s a particular focus on over coming heartbreak, inspiring Ogbon to admit he’s haunted by an ex so badly he now needs to call up the Ghostbusters for assistance.


Since emerging in the late 2010s, Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon has consistently lit up America’s underground rap scene and this is thanks to a refreshingly honest writing style. Amid the exquisitely wavy strings of 2021’s The Missing Link / The Sneaky Link, for example, he rapped: “Everyone thinks they’re play er, until their bitch doesn’t come home.” Biting and snappy, the nasally vocals carry the playful verve of comedian Richard Pryor bravely excavating personal Demons to solicit giggles.


All this brash, wry Redman-inspired storytelling continues on the new pro ject. Its first single is titled I’m Signed to Lex, Now I’m Up – a name that mirrors what a big moment releasing a project on the label that once housed MF DOOM represents for Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon’s legacy. “I’m really driven by being able to level up and give my family more financial freedom,” he hopes.
And, if auntie asked what his path was right now, what exactly would the rap per say? Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon concludes: “Auntie: this rapping thing feels like it’s finally about to pay off!”

Work of Art is not merely a sophomore album; it is a victory lap run with the precision of a master artist. Following the stratospheric global ascent of his debut, Mr. Money with the Vibe, Asake faced the kind of pressure that usually demands a pivot. Instead, he treated that intensity like clay, sculpting a project that feels at once more expansive in scale and more intimate in spirit. Released in 2023, the album serves as a definitive statement on Asake’s sonic identity, deepening his signature fusion of Amapiano, Fuji-inspired percussion, and Afrobeats while moving with a newfound sense of deliberate poise.

If his debut was a high-octane sprint to introduce his sound to the world, Work of Art is a confident stroll through his own creative museum. Anchored once again by the masterful production of Magicsticks, the album serves as the perfect architectural space for Asake’s erratic, infectious flows. The record feels richly textured—brimming with pulsating log drums, soulful samples, and the specific, ecstatic chaos of Lagos nightlife. Asake successfully bridges the gap between traditional Yoruba heritage and the deep, percussive basslines of South African Amapiano, resulting in a sound that feels simultaneously ancestral and futuristic.

The project thrives on a unique duality: it is introspective, yet undeniably club-ready. Tracks like "Amapiano," featuring Olamide, provide the anthemic energy his fans crave, while cuts like "Basquiat" showcase a lyrical swagger that frames his life as high art set to a relentless four-on-the-floor beat. By leaning into his "Mr. Money" persona with added vulnerability and a clearer focus on the craftsmanship of his vocal delivery, Asake avoids the dreaded sophomore slump entirely. He proves that he isn't just making pop songs; he is curating a moment. Ultimately, Work of Art captures the feeling of an artist standing at the peak of his powers, looking out at the landscape he has helped reshape, and confirming that, indeed, he belongs there. It is not about reinventing the wheel—it’s about proving that the wheel he built is a masterpiece.

New album by french rapper Sheldon, including featurings with Chilly Gonzales, Jazzy Bazz, Tuerie, Asfar Shamsi...



Monsters are never where we expect them to be. They take shape in silences, in vague fears, in the baggage we carry without always understanding it. Sometimes, we also encounter them along the course of a life. On this new album, Sheldon chooses to dance with them, to tame them with wit, grace, and a sense of peace.



Following a powerful return with Grünt 75, an iconic format to which the 75e Session collective brought particularly ambitious visual staging, Sheldon unveils a fourth album that unfolds across fourteen tracks like a chiaroscuro landscape, revealing the full depth of his emotional and musical range. Through intimate narratives, the record explores identity (Être une fille), family and fatherhood (La Fenêtre and Les Monstres, the title track), as well as friendship (Eh le reuf). These are themes that run through all of us, approached here with writing that is vivid, demanding, and deeply sensitive.

Driven by a strong narrative arc, the album features songs like Être une fille, which challenges and questions us. On it, Sheldon reflects on his relationship to gender, his doubts and discomfort with the codes of masculinity, and the idea that he has sometimes imagined himself elsewhere. Tracks like La Fenêtre and Avec ça illuminate the album like moments of communion, sincere, warm, and unifying, carried by a childlike lightness that makes tomorrow disappear.

True to his open minded and ever curious artistic approach, Sheldon draws from a wide range of musical genres while keeping rap as the album’s guiding thread, giving each song its own singular identity and contributing to the balance of the whole. To shape the project, Sheldon surrounded himself with a new generation of musicians and beatmakers whose influences span rap, indie rock, pop, and experimental music. Among them are Johnny Ola, who has notably composed for Zamdane, Jazzy Bazz, and Edge, Rodolphe Babignan, Carbonne’s flamenco guitarist, and Jeune Oji, an artist signed to Friends of Friends Music. Together, they bring melodic and acoustic richness, as well as a collective generosity that deepens the album’s intimacy.

This new album also opens the door to new collaborations.

On L’école primaire, Chilly Gonzales joins Sheldon for an unconventional piano and vocals piece, driven by cinematic, deeply intimate storytelling. Using his primary school as a point of reference, Sheldon retraces his path from childhood to adulthood, somewhere between nostalgia and serenity.

On Cowgirl, Tuerie joins Sheldon for a soft, melodic ballad with an 80s tint, capturing the weightlessness of a sunlit summer.

On Sidequest, Sheldon reunites with Asfar Shamsi, who had already appeared on his Grünt. Over a delicate cloud trap production, the two artists open up about everyday pain, finding in introspection a way to put things into perspective.

Finally, Vol de nuit brings Jazzy Bazz and Sheldon together for an intimate exchange over an ethereal, mysterious production, as both artists look back on their journeys with calm and clarity.

Conceived alongside Sheldon’s closest circle, the project celebrates family, friendship, and love as its founding pillars. Sheldon chooses to step away from the images, allowing his story to be embodied instead through the faces and gestures of those around him. This approach runs through all of the project’s visuals. Rejecting the excess of spectacular image making, he chose instead to hand a camera to his loved ones so they could offer their own vision of a song from the album. By opening a small window onto his intimacy, and that of the people closest to him, Sheldon finds a way to say a great deal with very little, turning deeply personal trajectories into something universal.

Like the music videos, the album cover is rooted in a deliberately simple approach, where the fantasy of childhood disrupts reality. Designed by Tenzin, the graphic designer behind Sheldon’s recent projects, Ptite Sœur, and also work for Jul, it is based on an archival photograph taken during a traditional carnival in Tenzin’s native village. With no staging involved, the image captures children in costume mid parade, caught in a spontaneous burst of movement, embodying the free innocence of childhood.



Les Monstres marks a new chapter in Sheldon’s journey. Like a rainbow after the storm, this fourth album reveals new colours in the artist’s discography, as he delivers a record that is both demanding and accessible, intimate and open, one in which music becomes a love letter to friendship and to love itself. Set for release on April 24, 2026, the album will be followed by a tour culminating at La Cigale in Paris on December 3, 2026.

ANNE is proudly presents her new imprint Blind Harmonies, shaped by intuition, patience, and a self-taught approach to music creation. The name reflects a journey built without formal training, producing music "blind," guided by listening, experimentation, and trust in instinct rather than rules. The label is built on the belief that harmony is something you sense before you understand. By closing your eyes, sound becomes more honest, rhythms breathe, textures speak, and emotion takes the lead.

With her first release, ANNE presents four dynamic, dance floor - oriented cuts-emotional and seductive at the same time. Opening with A1. Daydream, the EP sets a melancholic yet driving tone, drifting deep into the listener's mind and emotions. A2. Castles in the Air follows with a propulsive rhythm, led by Detroit-influenced synth soul and percussive energy that carries the track forward.

On the B-side, B1. Metallic Tapes delivers a hypnotic, percussive, and trippy groove, maintaining a steady yet intense rhythmic flow. Closing the record, "In the Blink of an Eye" blends powerful drums with a sharp, striking lead-proving that potent techno can be both intense and beautiful. The release it's a personal journey, produced with detail and love and focusing on the dynamic but timeless approach of techno music.

Strut proudly presents the first-ever reissue of a landmark 1974 Ghanaian highlife classic Sikyi Highlife by Dr K. Gyasi & His Noble Kings, originally released on Essiebons.

A defining recording of the era, Sikyi Highlife bridges tradition and innovation at a pivotal moment in Ghanaian music. Deeply rooted in the classic 1950s–’60s highlife sound, K. Gyasi drew inspiration from the ancient sikyi drum-dance of the Akan people of southern Ghana, shaping the album’s rhythms around its distinctive pulse.

The vocal arrangements echo the traditional Akan modal style, grounding the music firmly in Ghana’s cultural heritage. Yet Sikyi Highlife is equally forward-thinking. As electric guitars became standard in highlife during the 1960s, the 1970s ushered in further experimentation. The Noble Kings broke new ground as the first highlife guitar band to incorporate keyboards and a full horn section into their sound, expanding the genre’s sonic possibilities while retaining its rootsy spirit.

Gyasi’s approach was part of a broader indigenisation movement among Ghana’s electric highlife bands in the post-independence era. Inspired by the nation’s ‘African Personality’ ethos and reinforced by Afrocentric messages arriving from American soul and funk, artists began reclaiming traditional forms within modern arrangements. Contemporaries included Koo Nimo, who revived the older palmwine style, and drummer Nii Ashitey, whose Wulomei band pioneered a folklorised Ga highlife sound from 1973.

Like many musicians of his generation, Gyasi was a passionate supporter of Ghana’s independence movement. In 1963, he travelled as a musical ambassador alongside Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, performing across North Africa and the USSR and carrying Ghanaian culture onto the world stage.

The Noble Kings’ mid-’70s line-up featured some of the country’s finest musicians, including guitarist Eric Agyeman (who led the band at the time), Thomas Frimpong on drums and vocals, Ernest Honny on organ, and bassist Ralph Karikari - who was renowned for his innovative technique of translating the rhythms and tonal language of the traditional talking drum onto electric bass.

Upon its original release, Sikyi Highlife became one of the biggest-selling albums of the 1970s for Essiebons, earning Gyasi the affectionate honorary title of “Dr” from his devoted fans. Today, the album remains an evergreen classic, still cherished across Ghana and beyond.

POEME ELECTRONIQUE was Dave Hewson (synthesisers, production), Sharon Abbott (lyrics, lead and backing vocals), Julie Ruler (backing vocals) and Les Hewson (bass), formed in 1980 by Dave Hewson in South London, UK, in 1980. Dave was studying music and as a rare kind of student species he had a deep fascination for New Wave and electronic music thus also playing and recording electronic music ever since like using the Boss DR-55, Cosmo Sound Super Drum, Elka Rhapsody 610, EMS Synthi AKS, Korg MS-20(X2)/Polysix/Polyphonic Ensemble 1000/VC-10 Vocoder, Linn Electronics LM-1, Octave Kitten, Roland RS-09/VP-330 Vocoder Plus, Simmons SDS-V Kit and Yamaha CS-80 on this retrospective POEME ELECTRONIQUE album with original material from 1981/82 only. Over the period of more than two years, Dave has remastered these tracks using the latest high-end tools making them sound better than ever before. The deluxe 2LP vinyl album comprises 16 tracks of which 14 have never been published before. “The Echoes Fade” and “Voice” are the original versions taken off their original 7” from 1982. The album “The Echoes Fade” cannot be described other than being a masterpiece and one of the best-ever early 80’s electropop records ever, and it surely has to be lined up with Rational Youth or Experimental Products’ cult albums (in terms of being minimal synth/wave scene reference albums), but to be frank, Anna thinks that POEME ELECTRONIQUE were even above their level.

Truly, they had deserved to go on the successful path like Depeche Mode, OMD or Soft Cell, but fate was against them as it seems. The main difference to other electropop groups of the time was definitely that Dave did not only master his synths technically-wise, no, he also knew how to actually play, and when you hear his amazing multi-track ‘manual sequencing’, programming skills, great harmonies and melodies throughout the tracks, along with the two girls’ performances – well they can really sing! – you will agree there is some something remarkably extraordinary in these tracks. You will find minimal electropop super hits like “Rendezvous”, “She’s an Image”, “Fragile”, or “Dilemma”; hauntingly beautiful melancholic tracks like “A Mourner’s Lament”, “This Night” or “It’s in the Atmosphere”; darkest minimal electronics on “Inside his Head”; and even more poppier tracks like “Follow”. This record will hopefully be loved by any electronic music lover and most probably marks the highlight in the growing Anna Logue Records catalogue – therefore Anna did not shy away from any costs and the album is truly an outstanding release in every single aspect including sound and artwork presentation. Apart from the bonus tracks you will find in the 2LP deluxe vinyl edition glossy inner sleeves with lyrics to all songs, as well as individual mini 7” sleeves for each song designed by our dear graphic designer Steve Lippert plus many additional group photos on the gatefold sleeves’ inner. After so many efforts and more than two years passing by, Anna is so over the moon to see this release being ready now and we have done all we could to make this an outstanding release, so now it’s up to you to give the band their final glory, but Anna is in no doubt that – at least after hearing the sound samples – you will.

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.

That’s a project led by a flamenco guitarist who turns out to be a talented lyricist and singer.
Billy Sharp received early support from Billie Eilish on SoundCloud and later from Nils Hoffman, who fell in love with his toplines. This first glimpse into his musical landscape reveals an intriguing personality, touching contradictions, but beyond that and more simply: a voice, a guitar, and mesmerizing melodies.

We're talking about music that moves, transcends, and resonates with the listener's emotions. All the tracks are elegantly carrying the project's message: introspective and passionately intense.

Billy Sharp unveils "Rose Tint," an EP with a strong identity, destined to be one of those timeless pieces. Billy worked meticulously on each of the 4 tracks composing this debut EP, resulting in an impressive outcome. The first notes of the opening track are sure to captivate anyone with their touching vocals and top lines. The EP builds in intensity with each performance, culminating in "2013," a danceable and nostalgic track.

2026 Repress

French DJ and producer Hemka makes a striking solo debut on Mutual Rytm with 'Introspection'.

Born in Marseille and based in Paris, Hemka has been shaping her take on techno for over a decade, steadily growing her international presence with music on respected imprints such as Token. Her music fuses the raw energy of 90s techno with modern textures and is fast-paced, groovy and laced with subtle psychedelia. By weaving in her own vocals, Hemka adds a deeply personal and authentic layer that resonates with both the body and mind. Following the strong reception of her track 'Fragrance' on the 'Federation Of Rytm III' compilation, this potent new EP is a powerful reflection of her bold, emotional and forward-thinking artistic voice and the start of an exciting new chapter with SHDW's Mutual Rytm.

'Abyss' kicks off with tightly coiled, heavy-hitting drum funk and eerie synths that never let up while ghoulish vocals layer in extra darkness and anxiety. 'Time' is another sleek, stripped-back but banging wedge of linear techno excellence and 'I Can't Shine' layers up paranoid vocals with high-speed glitches and rubbery drums to ensure maximum impact in the club. The excellence continues with 'The Bad Place' with booming drums and moody synth atmospheres, getting you up on your toes and keeping you there. Last, 'Unchanged' fizzes with static electricity as wordless vocals refract around the mix next to wispy synths and icy hi-hats. Digital bonus cuts 'Voice In My Head' and 'Eternity' round things out with more heady and intense techno for driving deep into the night.

Apollo Records proudly present the vinyl reissue of ‘Morning Light’, the acclaimed 1997 album from Mark Van Hoen’s Locust project; a work that blurred the boundaries between ambient electronics, trip-hop, and dream-pop with an emotional precision few have matched since.

Originally issued during the label’s pioneering late-’90s era, ‘Morning Light’ marked a bold evolution for Van Hoen, best known at the time for his dark, abstract ambient work under Locust and as a member of Seefeel. Seeking to create something more human and melodic, Van Hoen assembled a rotating cast of collaborators, including Zoe Niblett, Craig Bethell, Neil Halstead (Slowdive/Mojave 3), and Wendy Roberts, blending fractured dance rhythms, live instrumentation, and intimate vocal performances into something both deeply personal and effortlessly cinematic.

From the haunting reimagining of The Carpenters’ ‘No-One In The World’ to the slow blooming emotional arcs of ‘All Your Own Way,’ ‘Folie’, and ‘The Girl With The Fairytale Dream’, the album’s 13 tracks form a widescreen narrative of melancholy and beauty. Reviewers at the time hailed it as “a subtle delight” and “sheer God-given genius”, comparing its mood and texture to Massive Attack, This Mortal Coil, and Portishead, yet noting its entirely singular voice.

This reissue restores Morning Light to vinyl for the first time in over two decades. A crucial artefact from the fertile intersection of experimental electronica and ethereal pop, ‘Morning Light’ stands today as one of the label’s most quietly influential releases.

The leader of the internationally acclaimed Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet reveals a more intimate, personal side in his solo project. Solo, the new album from Wojtek Mazolewski, offers a chamber-like, cinematic and deeply atmospheric listening experience.

For the first time in more than a decade, Paul St. Hilaire (AKA Tikiman) presents a solo album – 100% Tiki.

Over his 30-plus year career, St. Hilaire has become one of dance music’s quietly legendary figures. Born and raised in Dominica, he moved to Berlin in 1994 and has lent both his voice and his musicianship to some of the most iconic electronic music from the German capital – and beyond. Renowned for his collaborations with Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus (AKA Rhythm & Sound), he has also appeared on records with Deadbeat, Rhauder, Larry Heard aka Mr. Fingers and Stereotyp (G-Stone Recordings), amongst others.

However, few know the extent of St. Hilaire’s compositional and technical mastery. From his home studio in Kreuzberg, which includes an extensive collection of vintage hardware, self-built instruments and notebooks scribbled with endless lyrics, he has created a vast archive of material spanning ambient dub, avant-jazz, lush techno and lovers rock.

Tikiman Vol. 1 is a heady, downtempo tour de force of patois metaphors on education, displacement and personal vs. global histories, as is evident on slippy album opener “Bedroom in My Bag”: Mister, mister / Where are you going? / I’m heading for a faraway land / What are you having in the bag in your hand? / Help us to understand / He said, I’ve got my bedroom in my bag.

Overall, the album’s lyrics reflect on life between Berlin and Dominica, specifically St. Hilaire’s hometown of Grand Bay, where he has worked with various musicians famous for the island’s different genres of carnival music. St. Hilaire himself always favoured the island’s more “discrete” music, developing a sonic synergy between two different geographical strains of groove and minimalism, and combining them with foundational Caribbean mixing techniques, which provide the basis for his songwriting and distinct
baritone.

Tikiman Vol.1 offers a rare insight into St. Hilaire’s complex artistry, from the eyes-down grooves of “Little Way” and the guitar-heavy digi dancehall experiment “Keep Safe,” to the subtle hypnosis of “Ten to One” and the softly crashing synth waves of closer “Three And A Half”, evoking not only beaches but also coasts and borders. It’s a fitting expression of both the breadth of St. Hilaire’s work, as well as his history as one of the few black, Berlin-based artists who, despite remaining largely overlooked, has influenced the city’s electronic music culture since its beginnings.


Credits
Written & Produced by Paul St. Hilaire
Mastered by Stefan Betke
Artwork by Grant Gibson

Kynant Records was founded in 2015 by Richard Akingbehin, a British-Nigerian radio programmer (Refuge Worldwide), music writer and DJ. Originally specialising in deep techno and featuring artists such as Cio D’Or, Terrence Dixon and Donato Dozzy, Kynant has since launched a sub-label Kynant EX which focuses on ambient, dub and experimental electronics.

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Son Little expands his musical palette on his upcoming album, Cityfolk. Blending elements of soul, folk, and blues, Son Little captures his signature sound along with expressive yet personal lyrics. Cityfolk is a reflection on love, loss, and finding peace in the chaos. It"s about holding on, letting go, and learning to breathe again when the world feels heavy. Born Aaron Earl Livingston to a preacher and a teacher in Los Angeles, Little"s collaborations with The Roots and RJD2 helped him make a name for himself in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia. Critics were quick to recognize the unique power of Little"s solo recordings, which stripped the past for parts that could be reconstituted into something wholly new and original. NPR hailed Little"s "impeccably crafted songs" as "honest and unpretentious," while The Independent proclaimed him "a formidable talent." Since then, his catalog has racked up over 250 million streams, and Little has toured with everyone from Leon Bridges and Kelis to Shakey Graves and Mumford & Sons alongside festival appearances at Bonnaroo, Newport Folk, and more. Never one to rest on his laurels, Little also earned a GRAMMYî for his work helming Mavis Staples" acclaimed "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean."

The programm with a personality, It will get on all your discs.
It will infiltrate your brains.

Yes it's (malware) bizzarre!

It will stick to you like glue and it will modify reality, to send in the bizzarre.

Time To Get On Board A New Black Universal Express.

With each new recording Anthony Joseph presents an imaginative, personal vision of contemporary black culture, and The Ark is yet another compelling album by the award-winning Trinidadian poet and musician. This second part of a sequence of two albums launched with last year’s Rowing Up River To Get Our Names Back, finds Joseph giving full vent to his desire to explore many thought-provoking themes. However, there is a specific thread running through the glorious offering of sounds.

”I was especially interested in the idea of using Afrofuturism as a means of using the future in order to correct the wrongs of the past,” explains Joseph. “And so a lot of lyrics reimage or imagine an alternate black history. At the same time there are elements of autobiography.” The aforesaid cultural phenomenon, a view of the black experience through the prism of science fiction and ancient Egypt and Africa, as mapped out by visionaries from music and literature such as Sun Ra, Parliament-Funkadelic and Octavia E. Butler, has previously inspired Joseph. His 2006 novel The African Origins Of UFOs was a multi-hued work, and the new music shows how Joseph

has, much like all significant artists, gone on to broaden his conceptual palette, creating beguiling new stories and images set to startling rhythms and tones. Tracks such as ‘James’, with its taut, crisp bass and dubbed-up brass, and ‘Transposition Of Space (Glissant)’, a potent evocation of the influential Martiniquan theorist set in a haze of jazz guitar and ambient synthesizers, are marvels of text-sound painting.

As for ‘Baron Samedi’, shaped by a languid, almost wounded guitar line and slow rise of horns that frame Joseph’s journey to the ‘mountain of fire, almost touching the sky’ it is an epic blend of commanding vocal delivery and dramatic sonic tapestry.

Joseph led the Spasm band in the early 2000s and recorded well-received albums such as Bird Head Son and Time, in which songs were largely based on spirituals or chants enhanced by improvisation. But his musical curiosity has naturally led to collaborations, and the new work is produced by Dave Okumu, the prodigiously talented guitarist-vocalist-composer known as the leader of Mercury Music Prize-nominated The Invisible, and who was also a member of the seminal band Jade Fox.

Having first performed together at a show curated by influential saxophonist-flautist Shabaka Hutchings at the storied Total Refreshment Centre In London during lockdown, Joseph and Okumu struck up a rapport that further developed when the former guested on he latter’s album. With the connection made Joseph knew Okumu was the ideal producer for this latest project, which has a freewheeling, almost black psychedelic thing. After sifting through demos and loops the guitarist made on pro-tools the poet started to live with the music. Many months later words began to take shape. Joseph then went into the studio with Okumu’s band and set about creating a magnum opus. Boasting a stellar cast such as vocalist Eska Mtungwazi, trumpeter Byron Wallen and keyboardist Nick Ramm, The Ark is a highly intricate musical mosaic framed by simmering funk grooves, wily jazz improvisation and haunting dub effects. Through the use of many genres the music has simply become its own genre.

The Ark can be perceived as a vessel or means of transport to new worlds, along the lines of Sun Ra’s Ark or Funkadelic’s Mothership, and the material it contains is a unique blend of who Anthony Joseph is and how he sees the world and society in these stimulating, challenging times. “It balances the personal with the universal in a much more vulnerable, accessible way than on previous albums,” Joseph explains.

“It has become less about a personal experience and more about a collective, communal experience in which the artist is conduit, messenger, urban griot.”