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To celebrate the launch of the 4th and last DLC of Atomic Heart, Kid Katana Records teamed up with Mundfish to bring you this high quality album for the first time on an exclusive double vinyl.

With over 10 million players since its release, and a nomination at the 14th Hollywood Music in Media Awards, Atomic Heart has kept on bringing new content in the game, enriching the players’ experience with new Stories, Threats and Music to pursue the fight for freedom and progress.

The physical edition is a premium 2LP designed in close relationship with the game's creative team: Track selection handpicked by Atomic Heart team, including tracks from Mick Gordon, GeoffPlaysGuitar and Boogrov, and 1 new track (DLC #4 trailer exclusive) 2-colored vinyls with unique red and black “corona” effect: handmade vinyl effect melting red and black colors to shape a unique vinyl color on each product, mirroring the cover art.

Exclusive cover art with mat finishing and glossy effect on the Twin and motorcycle

Cut The With The Cake Knife was recorded by Rose McDowall in 1988/89 following the break up of her group Strawberry Switchblade. Produced with the aid of several musicians in several studios, the album features songs written for the fabled second Strawberry Switchblade album. More importantly perhaps it showcases the honest, direct and life-affirming songs of one of the greatest unsung songwriters of the modern pop era at a tumultuous time in her career.

Tibet opens the set and could be one of the best pop songs you've never heard. The innate sadness of the songs' content - the loss of a friendship, impending sorrow - is heightened to heart-melting level by McDowall's pop nous and melodic sensibility. Choruses and hooks are everywhere on Cake Knife, from the outsider take on stadium 80s pop in Wings Of Heaven to the spiraling, ecstatic So Vicious, a glorious anthem that highlights the human fragility in McDowall's vocal performance, an instrument that has never lost the naïve purity it first exemplified in Strawberry Switchblade's early 80s recordings. The centerpiece of the album, the title-track, is the greatest Switchblade pop chart hit that never was. Like the veiled melancholy of her former group's hits, Cut With The Cake Knife hints at a darkness beneath the gloss, a darkness that saw McDowall delve into more esoteric territory with her subsequent recordings and collaborations. Cut With The Cake Knife serves as the bridge between the pop music McDowall had been making with her friends Jill Bryson, Lawrence from Felt and Primal Scream to what became a more extreme, deep sound informed by neo-folk and post industrial music.

Rose McDowall's role in the canon has always been one of an outsider. Beginning in Glasgow's East End in the avant proto-noise group The Poems, achieving fame briefly in the 80s and then disappearing into counter-cultural folklore, the emphasis in the internet-age has been skewed towards her image and cultural significance. Unseen to many, her solo work, her groups Sorrow and Spell and her collaborations with a whole host of underground luminaries have still touched lives. As McDowall elucidates: 'They're real sad songs, about real life. I've had people come up to me to say I'd connected with them and helped them. I remember a gig in America when we made a whole room cry. It was bizarre. A couple at the front of the stage started crying and then these two boys beside and suddenly everyone was crying. And I thought, "that's power."

Night School's issue of Cut With The Cake Knife includes unpublished photographs, extensive sleeve notes from Rose McDowall and 2 bonus tracks culled from the bootleg 7' 'Don't Fear The Reaper.' First vinyl pressing is Clear w/ Black swirl; 500 only / has DL card and booklet, with a poster
CD has extensive booklet and is packaged in anO-Card.

In spring 2025, Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri created the source material for their second album, Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun, during a three-day residency at Morphine Raum in Berlin. Functioning as both recording studio and performance venue, the space has no stage, with the audience gathered around the performers. Working within an open framework, the duo reshaped the music each evening while recording the performances live to multitrack. Rotary speakers, modular synthesizers and bowed guitar formed the core of their sonic language, captured through a 1970s mixing console and microphones placed around the room.

Back in Mogard’s studio in Rome, the material was further crafted as motifs were stretched, fragments isolated, and tempos dissolved. Irisarri recorded additional guitar textures and treatments in New York, while passages recorded by Martina Bertoni and Andrea Burelli in Berlin reinforced the harmonic centres and brought breath, refinement and a new sensibility to their compositions. The process continued as Mogard’s layering and subtraction reassembled everyone’s parts into the final arrangement.

The album opens with “In the Eastern Wild,” building from a sparse outline into a monumental formation of low-frequency weight, its internal motion shaped by the rotating Leslie speaker. “Over the Domes” widens into a broader acoustic field, where sustained modular tones meet waves of softly plucked guitar. The music then turns inward with “A Blue Descent,” centred on Bertoni’s cello, whose growling timbre introduces a melancholic depth.

At the album’s centre, “In a Quiet Radiance” unfolds around a slow guitar ostinato, its luminous stillness opening into a more expansive and reflective state. Across its ten-minute span, Burelli’s violin lines and Bertoni’s lower cello phrases gradually surface, weaving through the harmonic field. Mogard brings Burelli’s processed voice to the fore, its emotive, operatic presence becoming one of the record’s pivotal moments. “Of Blessed Ages” suspends the sonic flow, shifting between parallel major and minor chords as lingering, slowly decaying melodies shape the music’s internal drift. The closing “Among Shadows” settles into a darker resonance as layered textures recede.

Mogard and Irisarri’s shared language balances restraint and maximalism. UK magazine Crack describes the music as “a tidal wave held in suspension,” while Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant writes, “What a colossal sound, and how this music strikes at the emotions.” Reflecting on the residency sessions, Irisarri recalls: “At moments I genuinely couldn’t tell if a sound was coming from me or from Abul. It stopped feeling like two people making decisions and began to feel like we were inside a system moving on its own."

Marja de Sanctis’ cover artwork revisits the vessel sculpture from the duo’s first album, Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close. There it appeared as raw, unfired clay. Here it has been fired in the kiln and finished with a glaze. Light gathers on its polished surface and spills into the surrounding space. As she explains, “I wanted to convey the idea of continuity within the duo, and the vessel became a kind of container for that idea. However, their music felt different this time, and with the collaboration of Martina and Andrea, I felt it should have a sleeker, softer, more glamorous look, very distant from the first raw appearance.” The transformation of the vessel from raw clay to fired form suggests a passage from immediacy toward permanence, mirroring the music’s gradual expansion.

In spring 2025, Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri created the source material for their second album, Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun, during a three-day residency at Morphine Raum in Berlin. Functioning as both recording studio and performance venue, the space has no stage, with the audience gathered around the performers. Working within an open framework, the duo reshaped the music each evening while recording the performances live to multitrack. Rotary speakers, modular synthesizers and bowed guitar formed the core of their sonic language, captured through a 1970s mixing console and microphones placed around the room.

Back in Mogard’s studio in Rome, the material was further crafted as motifs were stretched, fragments isolated, and tempos dissolved. Irisarri recorded additional guitar textures and treatments in New York, while passages recorded by Martina Bertoni and Andrea Burelli in Berlin reinforced the harmonic centres and brought breath, refinement and a new sensibility to their compositions. The process continued as Mogard’s layering and subtraction reassembled everyone’s parts into the final arrangement.

The album opens with “In the Eastern Wild,” building from a sparse outline into a monumental formation of low-frequency weight, its internal motion shaped by the rotating Leslie speaker. “Over the Domes” widens into a broader acoustic field, where sustained modular tones meet waves of softly plucked guitar. The music then turns inward with “A Blue Descent,” centred on Bertoni’s cello, whose growling timbre introduces a melancholic depth.

At the album’s centre, “In a Quiet Radiance” unfolds around a slow guitar ostinato, its luminous stillness opening into a more expansive and reflective state. Across its ten-minute span, Burelli’s violin lines and Bertoni’s lower cello phrases gradually surface, weaving through the harmonic field. Mogard brings Burelli’s processed voice to the fore, its emotive, operatic presence becoming one of the record’s pivotal moments. “Of Blessed Ages” suspends the sonic flow, shifting between parallel major and minor chords as lingering, slowly decaying melodies shape the music’s internal drift. The closing “Among Shadows” settles into a darker resonance as layered textures recede.

Mogard and Irisarri’s shared language balances restraint and maximalism. UK magazine Crack describes the music as “a tidal wave held in suspension,” while Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant writes, “What a colossal sound, and how this music strikes at the emotions.” Reflecting on the residency sessions, Irisarri recalls: “At moments I genuinely couldn’t tell if a sound was coming from me or from Abul. It stopped feeling like two people making decisions and began to feel like we were inside a system moving on its own."

Marja de Sanctis’ cover artwork revisits the vessel sculpture from the duo’s first album, Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close. There it appeared as raw, unfired clay. Here it has been fired in the kiln and finished with a glaze. Light gathers on its polished surface and spills into the surrounding space. As she explains, “I wanted to convey the idea of continuity within the duo, and the vessel became a kind of container for that idea. However, their music felt different this time, and with the collaboration of Martina and Andrea, I felt it should have a sleeker, softer, more glamorous look, very distant from the first raw appearance.” The transformation of the vessel from raw clay to fired form suggests a passage from immediacy toward permanence, mirroring the music’s gradual expansion.

In spring 2025, Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri created the source material for their second album, Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun, during a three-day residency at Morphine Raum in Berlin. Functioning as both recording studio and performance venue, the space has no stage, with the audience gathered around the performers. Working within an open framework, the duo reshaped the music each evening while recording the performances live to multitrack. Rotary speakers, modular synthesizers and bowed guitar formed the core of their sonic language, captured through a 1970s mixing console and microphones placed around the room.

Back in Mogard’s studio in Rome, the material was further crafted as motifs were stretched, fragments isolated, and tempos dissolved. Irisarri recorded additional guitar textures and treatments in New York, while passages recorded by Martina Bertoni and Andrea Burelli in Berlin reinforced the harmonic centres and brought breath, refinement and a new sensibility to their compositions. The process continued as Mogard’s layering and subtraction reassembled everyone’s parts into the final arrangement.

The album opens with “In the Eastern Wild,” building from a sparse outline into a monumental formation of low-frequency weight, its internal motion shaped by the rotating Leslie speaker. “Over the Domes” widens into a broader acoustic field, where sustained modular tones meet waves of softly plucked guitar. The music then turns inward with “A Blue Descent,” centred on Bertoni’s cello, whose growling timbre introduces a melancholic depth.

At the album’s centre, “In a Quiet Radiance” unfolds around a slow guitar ostinato, its luminous stillness opening into a more expansive and reflective state. Across its ten-minute span, Burelli’s violin lines and Bertoni’s lower cello phrases gradually surface, weaving through the harmonic field. Mogard brings Burelli’s processed voice to the fore, its emotive, operatic presence becoming one of the record’s pivotal moments. “Of Blessed Ages” suspends the sonic flow, shifting between parallel major and minor chords as lingering, slowly decaying melodies shape the music’s internal drift. The closing “Among Shadows” settles into a darker resonance as layered textures recede.

Mogard and Irisarri’s shared language balances restraint and maximalism. UK magazine Crack describes the music as “a tidal wave held in suspension,” while Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant writes, “What a colossal sound, and how this music strikes at the emotions.” Reflecting on the residency sessions, Irisarri recalls: “At moments I genuinely couldn’t tell if a sound was coming from me or from Abul. It stopped feeling like two people making decisions and began to feel like we were inside a system moving on its own."

Marja de Sanctis’ cover artwork revisits the vessel sculpture from the duo’s first album, Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close. There it appeared as raw, unfired clay. Here it has been fired in the kiln and finished with a glaze. Light gathers on its polished surface and spills into the surrounding space. As she explains, “I wanted to convey the idea of continuity within the duo, and the vessel became a kind of container for that idea. However, their music felt different this time, and with the collaboration of Martina and Andrea, I felt it should have a sleeker, softer, more glamorous look, very distant from the first raw appearance.” The transformation of the vessel from raw clay to fired form suggests a passage from immediacy toward permanence, mirroring the music’s gradual expansion.

Post-Hardcore nach Philly-Art. Unzufrieden mit dem metallischen Youth-Crew-Format, verfolgte Frail die wilde, lärmende Wut der Generation X gegen alles und jeden im rasanten Tempo von San Diego. ,No Indus Try" - die erste und einzige Vinyl-Compilation des Quintetts - enthält wichtige Singles für die Labels Yuletide, Bloodlink und Kidney Room sowie seltene Compilation-Tracks aus ihrer Zeit von 1993 bis 1995. Kommt mit 24-seitigen Zine, das die Band in Notizen, Zitaten, Fotos, Flyern und revolutionärer Literatur dokumentiert. Make Your Own Noise.

Chad R. Matheny veröffentlicht seit 1998 exzentrische, textlich dichte Underground-Popmusik, oft unter dem Namen Emperor X. Nach seinem Studium der Physik, Philosophie und Musikkomposition legte Matheny eine Pause von der akademischen Arbeit ein und verbrachte einen Großteil der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte damit, die Welt mit Bussen und Hochgeschwindigkeitszügen zu durchqueren, um an Orten Musik zu machen, die von einem kleinen, aber vollbesetzten Konzertsaal in Portugal über eine leere Messehalle im Norden des Libanon bis hin zu buchstäblich unterirdischen Metal-Bars in der ganzen Ukraine reichten. Er tourt oft allein mit Gitarre und Synthesizer, teilt sich aber manchmal die Bühne mit Weggefährten wie Ratboys, The Hotelier, The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Foxing, AJJ, The Front Bottoms und Xiu Xiu. Er produzierte das neue Brian-Sella-Album ,Well I Mean", war Co-Produzent des Sub-Pop-Albums ,Bits" der Jangle-Punk-Legenden Oxford Collapse zusammen mit Eric Topalski von Don Caballero und Storm & Stress und komponierte Videoundermusik für gemeinnützige Organisationen wie Planned Parenthood und SEIU. In den Jahren 2011 und 2012 wurde Mathenys Ambient-Werk ,Keeling Curve" in einer Multimedia-Installation des Fotografen Joel Sternfeld verwendet, die im Rahmen einer Retrospektive im Museum Folkwang zu sehen war.

Since its inception, Klasse Wrecks has always flirted with rap music flavours. Whether it's Luca Lozano's DJ Cabbage alter ego or the raw beats of the Grafiti Tapes series. Both label owners are big rap fans, with one (Mr. Ho) even being an ex-DMC scratch champ. It makes sense then that the last release from KW in 2025 is the heavily Memphis-inspired 'Straight From Hell' EP, brought to you by the two mysterious producers DJ Skelet and Grim Phunk. To use the term 'stripped down' would be an overstatement in regards to this EP, skeletal drums, booming kicks and frantic vocal loops done right make for a simple yet perfect mix. Tape hiss, MPC crunch and catchy loops are all integral to the vibe and music, tracks keep to a punchy 3-4 minutes and are interspersed by dreamy bonus beats just like in the old days.

WRWTFWW Records is proud to announce a super limited vinyl release of Christine Aufderhaar and City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra's original soundtrack for the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning 2022 animated-documentary film Aurora's Sunrise. The release comes as a 45rpm double LP in a heavyweight sleeve with inside out print.
Aurora's Sunrise is directed by Inna Sahakyan, and tells the extraordinary true story of Aurora Mardiganian, a survivor of the Armenian genocide who later became an actress in the United States. The film combines animated storytelling, archival footage, interviews, and rediscovered scenes from the 1919 silent film, and one of Hollywood's first blockbusters, Auction of Souls, in which Aurora starred. Aurora's Sunrise was Armenia's official submission for the 95th Academy Awards for best international feature film. It has won over 20 international prizes.
The composer, Christine Aufderhaar, is an accomplished German composer based in Berlin and Los Angeles, with over 20 years of experience and more than 50 films to her name. Her background spans classical, jazz, film scoring, and contemporary orchestral work, and she has been the recipient of numerous awards for her work.
The soundtrack performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra is deeply emotional, blending intimate melodies and majestic orchestral work, and weaving together themes of memory, survival, loss, and hope. A perfect fit for collectors of film scores, contemporary classical music, and limited vinyl releases.

Aquaregia celebrates its tenth anniversary with '10', a five-track compilation bringing together artists who have each shaped the imprint's sound over the past decade.

The release sees Troma & PERS1, Blazej Malinowski, Teo Drean, Nicola Dal Sacco, and 747 return to the label with new work, each interpreting acid through their own lens. Across the EP, Aquaregia's distinct blend of emotional, hypnotic, and musically rich acid techno is assembled in a nod to the label's foundation.

The record opens with Troma & PERS1's Atomic, a deep and dreamlike cut filled with metallic textures and drifting movement, followed by Blazej Malinowski's Brudnopis, sliding into a low-slung, seductive groove. On the flipside, Teo Drean's Honeymoon Phase injects orchestral euphoria and cinematic tension, while Nicola Dal Sacco channels vintage '90s hypnosis on Papaia. To close, 747's Decades offers a reflective, bittersweet finale - a fitting coda to Aquaregia's first ten years.

British techno veteran Justin Berkovi joins Somov with three timeless recordings that bridge pounding minimalism and emotive ambience. Cemented in the 90s history books Berkovi's sound lives on as always with timeless energy and emotive power. Adding to the release, Ignez contributes a remix of 'Step Up'.




c B1 Ethereal (Ø Phase remix)



c B1 Ethereal (Ø Phase remix)

Following the reissue of The Pocket of Fever, Ambient Sans presents the second chapter in Masahiro Sugaya’s visionary work for the avant-garde performing arts company Pappa TARAHUMARA.

Founded by Hiroshi Koike in 1982, Pappa TARAHUMARA blended dance, theater, music, and visual art into abstract, immersive stage worlds. Sugaya’s compositions became the sonic counterpart to this radical aesthetic—minimal yet deeply evocative, combining electronics, ambient textures, and delicate melodic gestures into a sound language both intimate and expansive.

Music From Alejo marks his first original stage score for the company: a work where repetition and silence intertwine with shimmering synthesizers and dreamlike motifs, conjuring atmospheres that feel suspended between reality and reverie. More structured than The Pocket of Fever yet equally poetic, the album reveals Sugaya’s gift for translating movement into sound, balancing modern composition with subtle echoes of Japanese tradition.

Reissued for the first time on vinyl, Music From Alejo includes a printed insert featuring an exclusive interview with the artist, alongside photographs from our visit to his home in Japan. Essential listening for anyone drawn to the ambient minimalism of Hiroshi Yoshimura, Midori Takada, or Brian Eno—reimagined here through the lens of Tokyo’s experimental scene of the 1980s.

Berlin-based producer and live-act Xhato presents his first solo EP on the newly founded label Little Endian.

In the humid static of early-’80s Tel Aviv, Chromosome emerged like a wiretap from the future. Formed in 1981 by provocateur Rami Fortis and sonic instigator Doron “Shultz” Eyal, the group fused punk abrasion, new wave architecture, avant-garde dissonance, and Middle Eastern textures. Joined by David Gervai and Rona Vered, they produced a singular 12" EP on their DIY imprint TOV Production - now a collector’s treasure.
This reissue of the Chromosome EP resurrects a raw, percussive artifact that slips between English, Arabic, and indecipherable phonetics like a busted shortwave signal. Anchored by “Makhtub” and backed with incendiary tracks such as “Show of Terrorism” and “Gazolina,” it is a vital document of Tel Aviv’s underground, mapping out a borderless, feral lineage for Israeli music.

Were FEX the Wildest & Weirdest German New Wave Band in 1984?

Few cult mysteries in modern music have captured the internet's imagination quite like "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet." Eventually identified as "Subways of Your Mind" by the elusive German band FEX, the track became a viral sensation decades after its creation-and even made its way into a recent Hollywood blockbuster (Black Phone 2).

Now, two more lost FEX recordings have emerged from an old demo cassette: "Dead End" and "Sarah." And they're every bit as electrifying as the legend suggests.

On both songs, guitarist and main songwriter Ture Rückwardt joins forces on lead vocals with his former wife and musical partner Ilona Rückwardt, forming a vocal pairing that channels raw energy and eerie chemistry. What they deliver are two of the most urgent, adrenaline-fueled post-punk artifacts you're likely to hear this year-even if they were recorded more than forty years ago.

Opening with a sharp, melodic guitar solo, "Dead End" bursts forward with uptempo drive-catchy, fierce, and full of momentum. Apparently inspired by Orwell's 1984, its lyrics depict urban desolation-loneliness, homelessness, hopelessness-yet still shimmer with defiance in lines like, "Truth is amazing - hoping is like waiting."

The second track, "Sarah," dives even deeper into darkness. Mixing post-punk intensity with psychedelic textures, Rückwardt tells an imaginary story of a couple lost in drugs and spiraling through a bad trip, only to wake and realize that sobriety offers little comfort-the real world itself can be just as brutal and offers no easy escape.

Neither song makes the slightest concession to commercial trends. Instead, they feel utterly uncompromising-wild, strange, and defiantly timeless. In a world obsessed with polish and playlists, "Dead End" and "Sarah" sound like transmissions from a different planet.

Both tracks were originally recorded as demos in 1984 in the band's rehearsal room, with Hase engineering. The newly restored versions preserve the raw spirit of the original tapes while adding subtle layers to enhance their atmosphere without losing the authentic 1980s sound. FEX hint that the untouched demo versions might surface later, possibly on a second volume of their archival

Phonica AM welcomes long-time friend of the shop Voigtmann, appearing under his A Thousand Futures alias with a release that feels perfectly at home on the imprint. Known for precision engineering and playful groove work, he delivers a 12″ that’s subtle, characterful and built for repeat play.

Across four tracks, Voigtmann moves between sleek, futuristic club moods with ease: from the ghostly, cosmic drive of “Leftfoot Lover” and the acid-flecked momentum of “Outer Edge,” through to the jacking electro-funk tension of “No Room For Squares.” The record closes on “Sunshine Capital,” a warm, chord-led cut that still carries his trademark grit - a deeper moment without losing focus.

Curated by Phonica’s Luther Vine, the AM series champions the stranger, more late-night corners of the dancefloor, and this release fits the ethos with style. Touching lightly on progressive house, tech house and electro-leaning minimal, the record avoids strict genre lines and instead prioritises feeling: trippy, functional and made for DJs.

In early 2025 Oakland-based Jerod S. Rivera released his second full length Dot-Dash, featuring a collaboration with CST co-founder Cat Lauigan and Jonathan James Carr. From the beginning we were mesmerized with the result, a perfect melding of Cat's processed spoken-word and Jerod's Buchla experimentations.

The thought of remixes presented immediately, the material extra ripe for interpolation. Enlisting friends from geographically and sonically disparate locations to present an ideal remix 12". Something for everyone, something for every setting, a tool with multiple functions...

The mysterious dub/techno/leftfield mastermind behind False Aralia dives further into territory explored on iri.gram, uptempo and dancefloor-ready in a more maximal Perlon-ish way while still embracing a half-time dub feel. Philipp Otterbach (Music from Memory, Offen, RIO) goes deeper into the guitar zone he’s been exploring, channeling Earth 2, Boris, and the like for some heavy drone. Oakland duo DJ ML and Wonja adopt their Motoko & Myers moniker (Future Times, Soda Gong), zeroing in on some choice vocal snippets that mesh perfectly with a live drum break and bassline for a Seefeel-esque version that could have come from a 90’s UK studio. Finally, Slowfoam embraces the more experimental elements of the original with a remix that starts sparse and minimal but builds into a glitchy rhythmic climax.

The 12” includes a 2-sided riso insert and a download code with access to an additional remix by close collaborator Jon Carr that twists the vocals into a throbbing industrial caucaphony.

Following on from the November release of the Material Things / Pike album Rain & Cymbals, 12th Isle enter the new year with a limited vinyl edition of Through Global Frequency, a prescient work of ambient synth, electro-acoustic music and voice recordings by long-standing Dutch multimedia artist Michel Banabila (b. Amsterdam, 1961). Structured around a poem largely composed of titles from recordings he has made over the years, and written during a period marked by new Dutch migration policies, the genocide in Gaza, and the rise of the far right across Europe, Banabila enlists the voices of friends and family, each reciting the poem back to him in their native language. These voice recordings are set within a unique composition that works with the tonality, cadence and rhythm of the vocals, encompassing languages such as Arabic, Spanish, isiZulu, German, French, English, Japanese, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Dutch. Contributions come from Scanner (Robin Rimbaud), Ines Kooli, Sebastian Lee Philipp (Die Wilde Jagd), Yuko Kobayashi, Simone Eleveld, Cengiz Arslanpay and more.

“I felt the need to create something warm, something that embraced diversity. Every voice here is uniquely recognisable and reflects how I know them. I truly enjoyed working with these recordings, focusing on their personalities and the distinctive sound of their languages. For me, making music has always been a way to stay sane, and I have always loved working with voice recordings.”

Music, mix and poem by Michel Banabila,
track 3 featuring Robin Schaeverbeke,
track 8 featuring Cengiz Arslanpay,
track 10 featuring Machinefabriek.
Cello on track 9 by Peter Hollo.

Isa Gordon and Tony Morris were first brought together through their individual releases on Optimo Music, which established mutual respect within the label’s community. While they had not previously performed live together, they were invited to take part in a fundraiser hosted by Queen’s Park Arena in support of Glasgow NW Foodbank and later for JD Twitch’s end-of-life care. Tony asked Isa to contribute guitar and backing vocals to his set, including a track then called Last Night I Had a Dream. That performance became the seed for their collaboration.

The first phase of fleshing it out, recalls Tony: “Somebody said Isa sang like Shania Twain. That got me thinking about country music and call and response, prompting me to come up with alternative lyrics.” Isa remembers: “I cycled over to Tony’s house with my guitar, and we spoke about what the tune meant. It was about him being wrapped up in dreamland, luxuriating in his subconscious, while my character — impatient and trapped in her own routines — barely had time to remember her own dreams.” Tony continues: “Brilliantly I realised that I could never collaborate with anyone in situ and so I sat in the garden for two hours watching my wife tend to plants. Every now and again I would creep up the stairs and put my ear to the door. I could hear Isa warbling away and so would resume my garden watch. After two hours I went back upstairs to see how she was getting on, only to find that she had written one of the greatest songs I’d ever heard. I still think that.” Tony adds: “My overwhelming sentiment about Wake Up Baby is pride. I can honestly say that I’m more proud of it than anything else I have done. It ticks a whole load of boxes. Isa’s singing in various Scottish modes is unique. The way her electric guitar adorns the dance beat makes it a rock song as well as a dance and a C&W song — truly multi-genre.”

The B-side of the 12” release, Syringe Moustache, is a surreal, darkly playful counterpart to Wake Up Baby. The track was inspired by a dream Tony had: “I was in a shopping mall, in a two-level shoe shop, and my attention was taken by a little girl with a syringe taped beneath her nose like a moustache. She went about her business trying on shoes, confident and wise beyond her years. In the dream, I imagined her as the daughter of cultured, intelligent parents determined to raise her independently. I was struck by my own feelings of inadequacy — I knew I could never have coped with such a contraption myself.” Isa’s take on the meaning of this song somewhat differs: “Tony sent me the tune over Instagram months before I met him, and I was spooked — as far as I knew, he didn’t know anything about me, but the story felt like it was written about me as a little girl, growing up around heroin addiction. The syringe beneath the girl’s nose became a symbol of the inescapable constraints of that environment, literally written on her face, yet something you just have to carry on through. On a buzz from the serendipity, I added a full instrumental backing to this most bizarre of works.”

The result is absurd, unsettling, and strangely empowering, staking out its own surreal, cinematic space. The 12” dance single is a format Tony had long wanted to explore — a tangible artefact to leave for family, a medium that celebrates the physicality of sound and the ritual of listening. It allowed the artists to maximise the format’s potential: a strong, multi-genre A-side, a surreal B-side, and remixes that expanded the record’s sonic world. Glasgow music staples Auntie Flo and 100% Positive Feedback were invited to reinterpret the tracks, bringing their distinctive touch — Auntie Flo transforming the A-side into a luscious, dancefloor-ready meditation, and 100% Positive Feedback twisting Syringe Moustache into absurd, playful shapes with false-start drops and over-the-top vocal editing.

The cover photograph, taken at the University Café by Harrison Reid, captures Isa and Tony embodying the characters they brought to life in the songs — a visual reflection of the record’s narrative and emotional stakes. The Café also holds personal significance: it’s where all of Isa’s meetings with Keith McIvor took place, where she first remembers visiting Glasgow as a child, and a place Tony fondly likes to go to drip egg yolk down his tie and watch the world go by. Together, the 12” format, the remixes, and the artwork create a cohesive, tactile experience, amplifying the duality, theatricality, and emotional breadth of the collaboration.