Поиск:sax

Hot psychedelic jazz groover and hand-drawn artwork strictly limited and only on vinyl!

Rhythm Section look to Poland once more for two of the most uplifting tracks of the year. Earth Trax (known for his productions as The Phantom & one half of Ptaki) and newcomer Newborn Junior pull two absolute classics out of the bag here that do what they say on the tin. Both Sax Track and Flute Track centre around ecstatic MIDI melodies on (you guessed it) Saxophone and Flute! Falling somewhere between the late night deep house excursions of Ron Trent (circa Morning Factory era) and more recent retro-leaning breakbeat driven output from the Pender Street Steppers et al, the Sax & Flute EP is a masterclass in sustain-release. Euphoria Guaranteed - or your money back!

France's near-revolution of May '68 was the zenith of that generation's struggle for a new kind of life. It kicked the country's small, but vibrant, counter-culture into overdrive, and birthed a local underground music scene. The bands it spawned made music with much less rock purity than groups from the UK and US. Their musical and cultural influences foregrounded improvisation, disjunction, and genre-blending: Soft Machine, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, free jazz, and radical politics. The introduction of the synthesiser in the early 1970s added fuel to the fire.

This collection of French underground music inaugurates a series to accompany "Synths, Sax & Situationists", the first English-language book to investigate this movement. It focuses on the music of the second wave of bands that emerged in 1972/3, which saw radicalised psychedelic and jazz influences merge with the future-music possibilities offered by new technology. The next volume will investigate the politically-charged bands that erupted in immediate aftermath of May '68.

This project by Manu Dibango, the legendary saxophonist and pioneer of Afro-fusion jazz, delves into a musical universe where the saxophone becomes the voice of a spiritual and introspective quest. Sax & Spirituals Lamastabastani merges jazz, gospel, and African influences to weave a dialogue between sacred traditions and modern expressions.

With this work, Dibango pays tribute to the spiritual roots of music while reaffirming his commitment to sonic innovation. The project's minimalist and meditative approach speaks to both the soul and the senses, offering a musical experience imbued with depth and humanity.

Another gem from the extensive Flipper Music catalog, more precisely from their Flower sublabel, "Dreams For Sax" is possibly one of the most stand-out productions from their studio ensemble Gruppo Sound, this time around featuring saxophonist Paolo Russo with keyboardists Stefano Galante and Vittorio Quattrini. First released in 1987, the songs recorded for "Dreams For Sax" are a beautiful melange of easy-listening electronic and jazzy vibes, from mellow tunes such as "Dawning" and "First Class" to some killer floor-filling italo disco bangers such as "Walking On Air" and "Dance Power". A groovy Italian library banger from the 80's now available on vinyl for the first time since its original release as a limited edition of 500 copies.

The Tramp crew is extremely proud to release Gus Brendel's mod-soul monster "Sax On The Rocks" for the first time on 45! On the flip you find a great tittyshaker titled "Arabian Nights" which was recorded two years earlier. Essential dance floor material - one for the hip djs!

Veteran Jamaican singer Robert Dallas joins accaliamed UK reggae saxman Leroy Horns on this contemprary rub-a-dub styled rhythm track from stalwart dubwise producer Manasseh.

Klasse Indie-Rock von Downunder. Riley Jones, Louis Forster und James Harrison sind seit Ewigkeiten beste Freunde deren gemeinsame Leidenschaft die Musik ist. Folgerichtig manifestierte man den Bund der Freundschaft in einer gemeinsamen Band schon zu High School Zeiten - The Goon Sax waren geboren. "Mirror II" ist bereits das dritte Album der australischen Indieband, gleichzeitig ihr Debüt auf ihrem neuen Label Matador Records und zudem ein Aufbruch in neue Soundwelten. Das 2016 erschienene Debütalbum "Up to Anything" war eine Mischung aus Selbstfindung und musikalischen Feldversuchen zum Nachfolger "We're Not Talking" (2018) hatten man seinen ganz eigenen Sound gefunden hatte. Für "Mirror II" ließen sich die drei Australier drei Jahre Zeit. Louis zog zwischenzeitlich nach Berlin, wo er in einem Kino arbeitete, während Riley und James eine Post-Punk-Band mit dem Namen Soot gründeten. Alle drei experimentierten in dieser Zeit mit teils abstrakter Musik und atonalen Sounds, nun folgt die Rückbesinnung zum Pop. Jedes Bandmitglied bringt dabei seine ganz eigene Art des Songwriting ein. Rileys musikalische Vorbilder wie Les Rallizes Dénudés, Keijo Haino aber auch Kylie Minogue hört man auf "Desire" und "Tag". Louis ist wiederum beeinflusst von avantgardistischem Pop. Er liebt Bands wie HTRK, Young Marble Giants und Stereolab, aber auch Hits von poppigeren Künstlern wie The 1975 oder Justin Bieber. Aus diesen Einflüssen entstanden Songs wie "Psychic" oder "In the Stone". Seine Art Songs zu schreiben brachte ihm immer wieder Vergleiche mit der großen australischen Band The Go-Betweens ein - kein Wunder, schließlich ist Robert Forster sein Vater. Da fällt der Sound nicht so weit vom Stamm. James Harrison ist wiederum ein großer Bewunderer von Syd Barrett, den Walker Brothers, Felt und Jandek, was man den psychedelisch geprägten Tracks "Carpetry" und "Caterpillars" auch anhört.

WHITE COLOURED VINYL

Klasse Indie-Rock von Downunder. Riley Jones, Louis Forster und James Harrison sind seit Ewigkeiten beste Freunde deren gemeinsame Leidenschaft die Musik ist. Folgerichtig manifestierte man den Bund der Freundschaft in einer gemeinsamen Band schon zu High School Zeiten - The Goon Sax waren geboren. "Mirror II" ist bereits das dritte Album der australischen Indieband, gleichzeitig ihr Debüt auf ihrem neuen Label Matador Records und zudem ein Aufbruch in neue Soundwelten. Das 2016 erschienene Debütalbum "Up to Anything" war eine Mischung aus Selbstfindung und musikalischen Feldversuchen zum Nachfolger "We're Not Talking" (2018) hatten man seinen ganz eigenen Sound gefunden hatte. Für "Mirror II" ließen sich die drei Australier drei Jahre Zeit. Louis zog zwischenzeitlich nach Berlin, wo er in einem Kino arbeitete, während Riley und James eine Post-Punk-Band mit dem Namen Soot gründeten. Alle drei experimentierten in dieser Zeit mit teils abstrakter Musik und atonalen Sounds, nun folgt die Rückbesinnung zum Pop. Jedes Bandmitglied bringt dabei seine ganz eigene Art des Songwriting ein. Rileys musikalische Vorbilder wie Les Rallizes Dénudés, Keijo Haino aber auch Kylie Minogue hört man auf "Desire" und "Tag". Louis ist wiederum beeinflusst von avantgardistischem Pop. Er liebt Bands wie HTRK, Young Marble Giants und Stereolab, aber auch Hits von poppigeren Künstlern wie The 1975 oder Justin Bieber. Aus diesen Einflüssen entstanden Songs wie "Psychic" oder "In the Stone". Seine Art Songs zu schreiben brachte ihm immer wieder Vergleiche mit der großen australischen Band The Go-Betweens ein - kein Wunder, schließlich ist Robert Forster sein Vater. Da fällt der Sound nicht so weit vom Stamm. James Harrison ist wiederum ein großer Bewunderer von Syd Barrett, den Walker Brothers, Felt und Jandek, was man den psychedelisch geprägten Tracks "Carpetry" und "Caterpillars" auch anhört.

For volume 86 in the Brazil45 series, we return with a pair of stellar 1970s Brazilian-Funk / Black Rio nuggets by two of the greats of the genre, Toni Tornado & Zeca Do Trombone.

'Sou Negro' (I'm Black) is taken from Toni Tornado's (aka Antônio Viana Gomes) sought after 1970 four-track compacto EP on Odeon Records. Already having had some experience in show business as a dancer in the 1960s, Toni started his musical career in 1970 and adopted the stage name 'Toni Tornado'. The influence of James Brown flowed through his music, with Toni becoming one of the first Brazilian artists (alongside Tim Maia) to introduce the soul and funk sound into Brazilian music. Together with other contemporary musicians and bands such as Banda Black Rio, Gerson King Combo and Cassiano, this new sound led to DJ's throwing soul parties. This unique Brazilian take on soul and funk (and later on disco) became coined as 'Black Rio'. A movement that celebrated pride in its Black identity and consciousness.

Zeca Do Trombone has an impressive repertoire which has seen him releasing a handful of solo albums and working with some of the greats of Brazilian music, such as Tim Maia, Ivan Lins, Joyce, and Luis Vagner. The track 'Coluna Do Meio' is taken from his 1976 collaboration project 'Zé Do Trombone E Roberto Sax' with saxophonist Roberto Sax, which additionally features the heavyweight Wilson das Neves on percussion. This catchy Wah-Wah guitar-led dancer has become a favourite with DJ's over the years and will continue to be championed for years to come.

Bordello A Parigi has just returned from a fruitful expedition to Russia to secure a four tracker from St Petersburg synthesizer playboy Kito Jempere. Super Sax Sounds is a rich and varied expression from an artist who has explored a spread of sounds during his career. The A-Side is the product of one diverse machine, the Yamaha QY-70. 'Bueller's Dance' gets the show on the road with latin showband flare. The opener brims with cruising notes, crisp claps and smooth bass; a track guaranteed to put a smile on any face. Moods change with the tear stained chords of 'Space Commercial', a superbly subtle work of joy and heartbreak. A colder wind permeates the flip as a cinematic and sinister element enters. Toms and snares support the descending bars of 'Atmosphere', a track where tropical dreams cloud into despair. Those dreams are purged by 'Tomohawk', a dark prowler who stalks with a maniacal glint and menacing intent. An audio feast care of Kito Jempere.

Classic jazz/funk/disco cut that became an instant anthem on all discerning dance floorswhen it was originally released, and for decades to follow. Includes the previously commercially unreleased Sax Mix of 'Journey', cut loud at 45rpm.

Championed by DJs including Francois Kevorkian, David Mancuso, Larry Levan and more, it's a record that, alongside tracks like Atmosfear's 'Dancing In Outer Space', become synonymous with the UK influence on US club music at the time.A sound that many forward thinking DJs in New York, Chicago etc. embraced to stand out from the crowd and bring depth to the dance floor.

Driving jazz/funk, legato bass, grooving beats, subtle keys, dubbed out percussion and guitar licks that bring you to a simple but infectious piano melody.

A collaboration between Andy Sodjka and Jerry Pike, mastered by Herb Powers.

20th May, 2016 marks forty years to the day that David Bowie's first ever best-of compilation, including songs from 1969 to 1976, CHANGESONEBOWIE was released. To mark this anniversary the album is being reissued on 180g heavyweight vinyl, cd and digital formats. Half of the limited vinyl will be pressed on black vinyl whilst the other half will be pressed on clear vinyl, this will not be mentioned on the sleeve so it will be completely random as to which one you receive.

Official 2023 repress

by Groovin Recordings of this seminal record that doesn't need any introduction, a masterpiece of classic house music.

Mothball Record is proud to present the first collaborative EP from Betonkust & Eilandnet, made unironically for goths who like to dance.
Betonkust, who as well as receiving widespread recognition for his work with Palmbomen II on the 'Centre Parcs' album, has already several strong solo releases, often influenced by the Belgian New Beat scene. Eilandnet meanwhile has an extensive discography of quintessentially Dutch electro pop under the pseudonym 'Stippenlift' .

Most listeners will gravitate immediately to the tough and gritty electro opener 'Meaningless Sax' or the melancholic beauty of 'Ultra HD Game Water', but besides these two tracks is an EP of diverse material reflecting the artists' interests and obsessions (hinted at in the track titles).

This EP was recorded live in Betonkust's studio outside Amsterdam, in a single 14 hour session with no edits. In the words of the artists 'we recorded until we couldn't hit the right notes anymore'.

NYC's Disco powerhouse West End Records should need no intro. The home of too-numerous-to-list club classics for over 30+ years is still impacting today on what we know to be club culture. The label started by one Mel Cheren (RIP) with assistance from Larry Levan and more way back in 1976 is still held in such high regard today with it's catalogue constantly being played, rediscovered, reinterpreted and loved by waves and waves of new fans and admirers.

From the West End vaults we are pleased to present Ednah Holt's 'Serious, Sirius Space Party', a thundering, slo-mo, bass-heavy slab of NYC electronic funk that will sound familiar to those who paid close attention to what the maestro Larry Levan was doing in his sacred booth at the Garage in 1981, or to those who tuned in to peep what the master Afrika Islam was doing on his now semi-religious, hip-hop blueprint 'Zulu Beat Show' on WHBI. That's right, you can guarantee if those 2 guys were playing your record in the city at the same time then you had an underground 'hit' on your hands. The fact that it crossed over from the discotheques to the streets and back again speaks of the appeal of this super heavyweight jam, the legendary team up of Kenton 'Kenix' Nix, Larry himself on the mix, and former Ritchie Family vocalist Ednah Holt makes for some heady listening. One for the after hours dancers, B-Boys and B-Girls and lovers of the downtempo workout. A true and essential NYC classic.

All tracks featured re-mastered, re-pressed and re-released with the permission of and in conjunction with West End Records, New York City / BMG.

the debut release of uk dj duo 'secretsundaze' on mule musiq. james priestley&giles smith delivered two modern deep house versions and one melodic ambient version. it's all-round for house music lover.

"Hi again!

It's been a couple years, but I've put together a new record, this time with my neighbor Stu and a few other friends. Stu's been tuning the piano Linda and I were using for our Lejsovka & Freund and Trouble Books recordings, and I've always enjoyed the test scales and vignettes he would run through checking his work.

I floated the idea to collaborate on a sort of 70s/80s ECM kinda vibe, and soon started bringing my laptop and a couple microphones over to his house to collect his improvisations and have him add to pieces I had started. Other friends from the neighborhood dropped by to add parts here and there as well.

The recordings were made primarily in the summers of 2016 & 2017 (with a break in-between to mourn the triumph of neo-fascism as well as the passing of beloved pets). Ultimately I tried to follow the feel of those summer nights and the tranquility they offered. Open air or at least open windows, drifting along, you know"

-KF, Spring 2018.

Aqueduct Ensemble is a collaboration between Ohio based artist Keith Freund - who has previously released music as part of both Lejsovka & Freund and Trouble Books - and his neighbour Stu, who is a piano tuner and professional pianist. Their debut album together, "Improvisations On An Apricot" is the second release from label Last Resort, and follows G.S Schray's "Gabriel" (2017) - the sleeves for which were both designed by Keith, who does does all the art direction for the label. Beginning life in 2013 as an NTS radio show of the same name, Last Resort is run by Tom Cathcart from his home in London.

Coco finally available on double vinyl for the first time. With his unmistakable sound-mix of Jazzand Swing samples and electronic music, Parov Stelar has secured his own unique position in the world of music.

The double vinyl starts off where his former successful LP's ended. On the other hand he is consequently developing his established jazzy sound, by adding new stylistic elements to his tunes. Also his dancefloor-productions, which

have been published only as singles, now find a debut to a greater extent on this album. They meet with Stelar's melancholic-melodious trademark-sound, which is well known from his earlier albums, but now also spiced up with Hip-

Hop beats and synthpads. An electrifying album to fall for. The two vinyls are originally thought of as one with tracks that can be danced to and one with tracks just for listening. Nevertheless the line between those two approaches becomes blurred in Parov Stelar's newer compositions. The

album makes your feet tap more and more with every track. The musician himself sees the LP as a 'book for musical readers' which is classically defined in introduction, middle part and end. Because of streaming hit singles the

consumer behaviour changed, people don't listen to albums the same way they used to. The whole experience that includes refelecting on less prominent tracks somehow got lost. Parov Stelar sets 'Coco' as a statement against this habit.

Repress!

"Il corpo" is the last one of Luigi Scattini's trilogy, which started with "La ragazza dalla pelle di luna" (1972) and then continued with "La ragazza fuoristrada" (1973). Umiliani's music privileges jazz and funky moods, dominated by the Hammond organ and wah wah, alternated with languid and almost "sleazy" instrumental ballads. This soundtrack finds its strength in melancholy, but also in drama and tension.

Three mixes from the brand new Berlin based label/project 'In Love We Trust'.Classic New York house inspired for the A side opening tune, driven by an off partiture alto-sax unfolding over a throbbing bass, four to the floor beats and great message delivered by a strong male voice, followed by a slower tempo roller-skate, atmospheric, Garage inspired disco cut with a solid 80's style linn drum grove, catchy riffs and a powerful bass line.
Rougher beats and a more acidic vibe for the flip side, direct and effective floor stomper guaranteed to raise heartbeats.

m.s. back on wax! follow up to his 2012 release on rawax 10" series.we like it - great release!

Sometimes the title of an album tells you everything you need to know. Laurence Pike’s Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet is like that: The music within represents a search for freedom, potentiality—liberatory strategies that transcend the ego and the solitary, atomized figure.

But in this case, the album title is also a red herring, because there is no jazz quintet here—just Pike, his drums, and his machines, not so much an ersatz ensemble as a purely notional one, a thought experiment equipped with drumsticks, circuitry, and the desire to go beyond hardwired limits.

And the results, strictly speaking, aren’t really jazz, though they incorporate the vocabulary of jazz, along with that of ambient, electronica, and post-rock. They are some other thing, cognizant of genre but never beholden to it. Again, we’re talking about a search for freedom here.

The Sydney-based musician has a long history of coloring outside the lines, not just in his solo recordings—including four albums for the Leaf label between 2018 and 2024—but also in the trio Pivot (later PVT); Szun Waves (alongside saxophonist Jack Wyllie and Border Community’s Luke Abbott); Triosk, which recorded an album with Jan Jelinek in 2003; and even post-punk titans Liars, whom he joined in late 2018.

Of his first album for Balmat, Pike says, “My loose concept was: What does music sound like when the expectations of late capitalism are removed from it? How might a jazz musician from an idealised culture of the future, or even another world, utilise musical language when the conventions of style and marketing are no longer a factor in music making?”

That inquiry, he says, connects to his “guiding principle: that the purpose of music is to access something bigger than the individual, and reveal a sense of possibility and freedom in the world to the listener. To create an understanding that the future can be something other than what we imagined or expect, even unconsciously.”

Heady ideas, but plug into his stream-of-metaconsciousness flow and you may start to intuit what motivates him. There is a deeply lyrical expression in these pieces—in the ruminative piano of opener “Guardians of Memory,” for example—but also a sense of exploded perspective, of ideas approached from more angles than any one mind could dream up. Of a collectivized consciousness, of mycelial networks branching across tone and rhythm and timbre, of ideas articulated in distributed fashion, nodal points dancing across drum heads.

Pike’s imaginary quintet is hardly without precedent; it’s a continuation of concepts floated across Jan Jelinek’s Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, Burnt Friedman’s many guises, and much of the recombinant improv of the International Anthem roster, not to mention the far corners of ECM’s catalog in the late 1970s and 1980s, which Pike says have been integral to his development since he was a teenager. Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet is a point in a continuum, a voice in a conversation, a question with no obvious answer: How can the search for otherness in music manifest something true about ourselves?

Baccanalia is the new EP from PS5 : a collection of visionary dances inspired by the world of classic mythology. The syncopated rhythms and the ritual chants evoke war dances, satyrs ‘ parades and rites of passage and transformation. A deep sonic trip emerges, in which stylistic features of contemporary jazz interlace with ancestral suggestions creating a musical experience that is both physical and mystical. Pietro Santangelo is among the most prominent and recognizable voices of the contemporary Neapolitan music scene. Starting from the seminal experience of Slivovitz and the underground of the Crossroads Improving improvisation collective, in recent years it has given shape to PS3 and PS5, two of the most innovative ensembles in Italian jazz in recent years.The sound of his saxophone has characterized iconic records such as Nu Genea ’s Nuova Napoli and Dario Bassolino’s Città Futura, is featured in bands such as Fitness Forever, Funkin’ Machine, Khalab, Ex Generation (Napoli Exchange), Circolo Psiconautico, and many others.

Pleased As Punch presents four tracks from the many shades of house. Groove P featuring Adeva's 'Hold On Honey' opens with a steady groove and bass he's known for, while vocals from Adeva carry you through the track. A2 follows with Saison's 'Keep My Mind'; a deeper, tougher sound they sometimes bring. Fresco Edits' 'You Are the One' adds classic disco flavour that brings warmth to the EP, while Capri's 'Sax Thing' closes with raw, sax-driven energy. Simple, solid tracks made to resonate.

For Metro Beirut’s latest release, Cem Mo steps forward with his debut vinyl EP, a record that bridges the roots of Chicago and Detroit house with his own deep and textured approach to groove.

Born in Ankara and having taken piano lessons at an early age, Cem drifted from classical into jazz, re-teaching himself harmony and improvisation before finding his way into production. After moving to Amsterdam in 2016, the city’s community and music scene expanded his horizon, shaping a sound that treats producing like improvising, with curiosity for grain, color, and repetition, where subtle shifts make all the difference. Along the way, Cem has released on Handy Records and Rhythm Section, while his project Nowhere People has appeared on Artisjok Records.

This EP brings together a tight circle of artists who deepen its character. Saxophonist Moritz Schuster, known for his work across electronic music and past work with Cem and Malik Kassim, formerly known as Retromigration, delivers a striking, free-flowing performance charged with raw intensity. On “The Hard Way”, Franco Corica joins Cem for a deep, soulful, jazz-leaning moment that feels both reflective and quietly defiant. Finally, longtime friend Malik pulls up with a dancefloor remix that preserves Cem’s melodic sensibility while adding his own loose, resulting in a circular dialogue between two artists who’ve grown side by side.

Artwork: Shahd Issa

After a gap of over ten years, the Grammy nominated Jazz Funk band Down To The Bone are back with their groove laden, Acid Jazz tinged new album “This Way Forward”– here on an ultra-limited, special release of a doublepack vinyl album. Bringing together a good groove fueled album of ten original tracks with a diversity of flavours – from Jazz Funk to Soul to Brazilian tinged delights that are sure to get the musical juices flowing. Packed full of the band’s trademark grooves and bringing together multi talented musicians from the past and the present all culminating into a melting-pot of sounds that together represent Down To The Bone’s essential sounds.

The new album also brings together multi-talented vocalists on no less than seven tracks From the exquisite soul talents of Hil Street Soul, who co-wrote the opening soul infused groove track “Get Up And Dance”, to the equally soulful tones of Natasha Watts and then the Brazillian sounds of Guida De Palma. The pulsing horn section of Tim Smart, Ryan Jacob (Bonobo/Alice Russell) and James Arben (Vibration Black Finger/Mulatu Astatke), together with Piers Green on sax solos, along with the driving bass of both Julian Crampton and Jo Phillpotts to the pumping beats of drummer Davide Giovannini (Snowboy/Jazztronic/Da Lata and Pucho/Lisa Stansfield), to the melodic chords of Neil Angilley (Snowboy/Jazzhino/Maceo Parker) and Anders Olinder (PeeWee Ellis/Courtney Pine), to the chugging guitar of Tony Remy( Dave Lee/The Sunburst Band/Incognito/Omar) and Mark Jaimes (Simply Red) plus Gianni Chiarello – and the icing on the cake with percussion from Joe “Bongo” Becket.

All working together to bring a stellar performance on this cracking new release to show that DTTB are a force to be reckoned with both on stage and on the wheels of steel.

RAWAX proudly presents the 9th release by Fresh & Low on their own „TREASURES" series!
This time we have the honor to re-issue "Love Capsule Deluxe“ formerly released on Guidance Recordings in 1998!
Our vinyl only edition includes the 4 strongest (in our opinion) tracks.

In 1955 Miles Davis played an all-star jam session at the Newport Jazz Festival with Thelonious Monk on piano, Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax and Zoot Sims on tenor sax. This performance immediately drew the attention of Columbia Records' George Avakian, who was so impressed that he immediately offered Davis a contract if he could form a regular band. The group he then assembled would go down in history as Davis' so-called "First Great Quintet", consisting of John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Paul Chambers on bass and of course Miles himself on trumpet. 'Round Midnight is Miles Davis' first record for Columbia and also the first studio recording of the First Great Quintet. The recording sessions began on October 26 1955 but the album wasn't released until 1957 as Davis was still under contract at Prestige at the time. These respective sessions yielded Steamin', Workin', Cookin' and Relaxin'; albums that would go down in history as quintessential blueprints of late 1950s hard bop.

The record is made up of a collection of standards and one traditional song ("Dear Old Stockholm", from the 19th century). Notably, it features what may be considered the most well-known versions of Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight" and "Bye Bye Blackbird". That Avakian made a golden signing was sufficiently clear from the start, but no one could foresee that it would be this quintet on Columbia that would go on to change the course of modern jazz forever with Kind of Blue. 'Round Midnight is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on crystal clear vinyl.

Ltd Edition 10"

Budapest based concept label Blue Sun welcomes formerly independent local afrobeat-jazz ensemble to its catalogue with a nuanced 4 tracker EP. The release not only marks the beginning of the collaboration, but a definite new musical direction in the band’s life.

Written in a one week jam session retreat in the Hungarian countryside, and recorded at one of the highest peaks of Hungary after a year of global touring, The Garden becomes an amalgamation of the band's personal and artistic experiences. The material conveys a more jazzier approach, with complex harmonies, and an almost cinematic, dreamlike atmosphere, somewhat distancing from (but not completely forgetting) the previously emphasized, dance-oriented Afro- and Latino roots. Song for Ramon serves as the EP’s emotional climax inspired by the passing of a close friend and local underground chef pioneer.

Formed in 2019 in Budapest, Hakumba is a staple of the Hungarian festival circuit, with a growing international presence (SXSW London, SHIP, PIN Music Showcase). They’ve recently finished a tour in Australia this January.

The groove-driven ensemble blends afrobeat, jazz, and various strands of world music into a sound that is both rhythmically powerful and harmonically adventurous. With an eleven-piece lineup featuring an expansive horn section, multiple vocalists, percussion, and keys, the band moves effortlessly between dancefloor energy and more intricate, jazz-influenced musical ideas.

Like the band’s previous album, the EP was again recorded, mixed, and mastered by András Weil, the producer behind The Qualitons, the only hungarian band ever performed Live at KEXP. This continuity preserves Hakumba’s recognizable sonic identity while giving space for new colors and more complex musical ideas to emerge.

Written & performed by:

Soma Számel – drums
Endre Szép – bass
Imre Hegedűs – guitar
Zalán Bendegúz Huff – guitar, vocals
Csongor Mari – keys
Noel Nagy – percussion, vocals
Dorka Foster – flute, vocals
Kristóf Szabó – alto sax
Alpár Sikó – tenor sax
Gáspár Simon – trumpet
András Téglásy – baritone sax

Produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Andras Weil
Artwork by Eszter Lukács
Graphic design by Péter Tóth
Manufactured by AD Records
Distributed by Rush Hour

Recorded at Galyatető, Hungary

Released under the Blue Sun

Repress of 2018’s classic compilation from Brownswood.

A primer on London’s bright-burning young jazz scene, this new compilation brings together a collection of some of its sharpest talents. A set of nine newly-recorded tracks, We Out Here captures a moment where genre markers matter less than raw, focused energy. Looking at the album’s running order, it could easily serve as a name-checking exercise for some of London’s most-tipped and hardworking bands of the past couple of years. Recorded across three long, fruitful days in a North West London studio, the crossover between each of the groups speaks to the close-knit circles which make up the scene.

Surveying the way that London’s jazz-influenced music had spread outside of its usual spaces in recent years, this album bottles up some of the vital ideas emanating from that burgeoning movement. Giving a platform to a scene where mutual cooperation and a DIY spirit are second-nature, it’s a window into the wide-eyed future of London’s musical underground.

Ubiquitous, much-lauded saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings is the project’s musical director. His own recent projects span from South Africa-connected, spiritually-minded jazz players Shabaka and the Ancestors to Sons of Kemet, who match diasporically-connected compositions with viscerally-direct live shows. His entry on the album, ‘Black Skin, Black Masks’, is typically difficult-to-define: with an off-kilter, shifting rhythmic backbone, repeated phrases – mirrored between clarinet and bass clarinet – shape the track with an alluring hue. His input ties together a deft, genre-agnostic sensibility that’s shared through all the players on the record.

Theon Cross – who’s also part of Sons of Kemet with Hutchings – starts his track, ‘Brockley’, with the solo, distinctive low rumble of his tuba. Winding and mesmeric, it sees tuba and sax lines winding together in rhythmic and melodic parallels. Ezra Collective – whose drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso has toured with Pharaohe Monch – run a tight, Afrobeat-tipped rhythm on ‘Pure Shade’, with the final third changing gear into a melodic, momentous closing stretch.

Joe Armon-Jones, whose ludicrous chops on the piano have seen him touring with the likes of Ata Kak, showcases earworm-like, insistent motifs on ‘Go See’, balanced with a playful, improvisatory approach with room for ad-libbing and solos a-plenty. Taking a softer tact than many of the other entries, Kokoroko – whose guitarist Oscar Jerome has been making waves with his solo material – spin a lyrical, steady-paced meditation on ‘Abusey Junction’, matching chanted vocals with gently-played guitar.

Nodding to spiritual jazz influences, Maisha’s ‘Inside The Acorn’ is a wandering, explorative rumination, balancing delicate washes of piano and percussion with sharp interplay between flute and bass clarinet. In contrast, Nubya Garcia’s ‘Once’ is taut and carefully-poised, her tenor sax guiding a carefully-built energy to an explosive conclusion. And finally, Triforce’s ‘Walls’ is a performance in two parts: starting with Mansur Brown’s languorous, lyrical guitar, the second half switches up to a low-slung, g-funk-tipped groove.

Following their 2023 LP Presents, Nathan Nelson's American Cream Band bring the Twin City heat back to Quindi with an album rooted in duality. From the yin and yang party-starting A side and meditative B side to the dual-attack boy-girl vocals, the nature of opposites and equals steer the expansive, artful strain of rock n' roll that spill out of this wholly unique Minnesotan export. For the ever intriguing Quindi, it's a strident step into Spring after the frosty introspection of Roudi Vagou & Läuten der Seele's Taghelle Nacht. While the world burns and injustice prevails, Twin is a celebration of unity and radical expression-all the more urgent against the backdrop of authoritarian overreach and righteous protest that has whipped through Minneapolis in recent times.
Twin continues Nelson's drive at the helm of American Cream Band to draw in a colourful cast of players to feed into his orgiastic sound, meshing the trance-induction of krautrock with the irrepressible funk of the post-punk-new-wave explosion. But principal among the cast of characters and forming a central tenet to the identity of this album is Liz Buhmann, lead vocalist and a formidable, playful foil to Nelson's own Midwestern twang. Around the electric spark between Buhmann and Nelson, a heavy duty ensemble wrangle guitar, bass, sax, a cornucopia of synths and a battery of percussion into all manner of sonic forms.
The double-sided concept manifests throughout Twin. On 'Call Me' Buhmann sings in French to contrast Nelson's English, while the strident strut of the NYC disco groove is offset by an inherent dreaminess that turns the track into a more cosmic kind of dancefloor workout. 'Ethical Vampire' is a spiky cut with a garage rock patina that spirals into a psychedelic, synth-soaked get-down. 'Don't Burn The House Down' is a loose and limber roller that captures Can at their funkiest along with the hypnotic vibe of other such esteemed long format jammers, but American Cream Band boils that energy into a hook-laden art pop sensibility before a gentle, drawn out landing.
Even the more pensive moments on Twin find space for friction. For all its tender, smoky temperament, 'Leda and the Swan' lets the electric piano and guitar fray at the edges and bleed into the red while Mat Heinrich's tumbling drums lurch with pent-up intensity on the one. 'No Funeral Necessary' skirts around the mellow pools of new age but prefers to let liberally doused Tape Echo tweak out Alex Meffert's honeyed sax inflections and Buhmann and Nelson's disparate sermons.
Nelson describes Twin as "an oppositorum coincidentia" - a reference to the mystical Latin concept of the coincidence of opposites that suggests contradictory ideas 'fall together' in a higher reality. Beyond the sound of the album, this idea also manifests in the cover photography by Sho Nikado and the swans on the LP labels by Autumn Garrington. As freewheeling and wide-open as American Cream Band feels, nothing appears by accident. The end result feels like a nourishing whole - rich with substance and nuance, deep enough to be explored and absorbed yet also so brazen and immediate you can't help but feel its surface charms from the first thrusts of 'The Hive Is Pissed' to the last ripples of 'We're Not So Sinister'.

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten's mind boggling band (Exit) Knarr is back with their new album "fly"! After touring supporting their albums "drops" and "breezy" they landed at Ingebrigt's home base in Oslo, Victoria, were they recorded an insane concert with new material and interpretations - now mixed down as a full blown new album. Recorded live, but as solid and unique as any studio album from the band. Amalie Dahl – alto and baritone saxophone Karl Hjalmar Nygren – tenor saxophone and electronics Marta Warelis – piano Jonathan F. Horne – guitar Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – double bass Olaf Olsen – drums

Tucked in the heart of Koreatown, Los Angeles, lies The Libra Hotel—the titular architecture of Nick Malkin's new album and site of his musical and psychogeographic exploration. Unlike most musical "site-specific" studies, Malkin remains wholly ambivalent to the documentarian approach, instead sharpening an auteur-like focus on the site as a conceptual and highly expressive backdrop. The Libra is musically explored as a space that houses a noir fragmentation of identity—the exhausted trope of a complicated protagonist walking through rain-soaked street corners and fumy neon lights—where an inner monologue is rendered in both miniature and at a cosmic scale. Casting aside stifling tropes around field recording, ambient, and improvised music, Malkin's work finds its own unique fidelity and emotional core through the assembly and reassembly of memory. Nearly every sound on the album—from frayed saxophones, lambent pianos, and dissected jazz drum kits—are multiplied, shattered, and reconstituted into shapes that adorn The Libra in a motion-blurred fog. The narrative of the Hotel suddenly appears as if out of the mist, with intersecting characters interacting within its walls by happenstance. Adminst the languid set pieces, wraith-like sonic grains gravitate around wide subbass beams that give structural form to The Libra, a narrative tension like when a scene is shot from hundreds of different perspectives: an image both luminous and veiled.

Much like Frank Sinatra's own spatial residency immortalized on "Live at The Sands," "At The Libra Hotel" showcases an exuberant view of entertainment, hospitality, and a form of masculinity, one that can quickly detourn into darkness. Knowing this, Malkin extracts a melancholic core out of The Libra locale. The flickering shadows of American decadence are shown in their ephemeral honesty, lines that trace how even in everyday life virtue is tested, sanity is tested, even reality is tested within the confines of desire, within the night. The album is draped in fleeting textures, carefully arranged with a trance-like microtonality, the faint inflections and articulations of a jazz band cascading into dissipated stillness. Voicemails about changed locations and covert eavesdropping on guests' whispered conversations provide an atmosphere of missed connection and voyeurism—a purloined letter of desire receding into a vanishing point. Like the music itself, The Hotel, a chapel perilous at the intersection of desolation row, the center of it all, yet simultaneously at the edge of town, becomes a structure between libidinous virtuality and actuality—our inevitable half-light.

Ultimately, the pensive atmosphere of "At The Libra Hotel," powerfully asserts a plea for the kinds of intimacy only possible in transient spaces. Here, memory cascades into a force that feels like something supernatural, perhaps even religious, yet always subject to the infidelity of our imagination. Here, the album opens into its primary psychodrama, the transient nature of subjectivity itself and how this becomes fractured in the tumult between our commitments and desires. Within this nocturnal space, to quote Louise Bourgeois, "you pile up associations the way you pile up bricks. Memory itself is a form of architecture."

Few producers age into deep house with this level of ease. From Switzerland, Shaka's latest EP feels authentic and lived-in rather than retro while drawing on 90s jazz-inflected house without leaning on pastiche. The opener main vocal mix drifts in on flutes, soft keys and Eve's voice, setting a loose, late-night mood that favours feel over flash. The instrumental flute version pares things back, letting swing and detail breathe. Flip it and 'As If Eternity Belonged To Us', featuring Cate Acupar, locks into a warmer, early-2000s pulse, while 'Life Is Brighter With You' cools the room with sax, piano and patient restraint. Dancefloor-ready but also nice and reflective.

A mutant beat manifesto from Miami luminaries Jonathan Trujillo (Jonny from Space) and Pablo Arrangoiz (El Gusano, DJ Fitness, Baüzer Vep), Crespi Drum Syndicate’s Colada Talk follows the duo’s debut on Sonido Isla with a freshly freaked collection of percussive oddities. Rooted in foundational clave rhythms and avant-garde experimentation, Crespi Drum Syndicate emerges from the amphibious underbelly of Miami’s Latin-infused club scene with their singular electro-acoustic vision.

Extensive live recording sessions, free improvisation, and a ritualistic studio practice

— countless hours spent twisting and rearranging sounds from found objects and Buchla modular systems — coalesce into new rhythmic forms. Atonal saxophone, bass clarinet, and slide whistle further expand upon Trujillo and Arrangoiz’s ever-evolving sonic palette, while NYC’s AceMo lends a hand on the heavily syncopated “Siu,” and closer “Boubow” might be the duo’s most hook-driven production to date with its mangled pop vocal and lewd drum-line bounce.

Landing somewhere between Steve Reich’s polyrhythmic “Six Marimbas,” Moebius & Plank’s industrial Krautrock sessions, and Ricardo Villalobos’ hypnotic techno minimalism, Colada Talk delivers on a world of subtropical rhythmic futurism and experimental body music that’s as heady as it is culo-shaking.

First time reissue of JP / US free jazz rarity.

The 1970s were Marion Brown’s most searching decade, a period during which he sought to move beyond the free jazz of the previous era and find more personal approaches to structuring improvisation and composition. After leaving New York for Europe in 1967, Brown began reshaping his music into what he described as “a more deliberate kind of music that had more structure to it,” pacing it so that moods and modes could develop over time. Albums such as In Sommerhausen, Afternoon of a Georgia Faun, Geechee Recollections, and Sweet Earth Flying trace this evolution: rhythmic structures moved to the foreground, harmony receded, and composition became a matter of orchestrating interlocking rhythmic parts as one would polyphonic lines.

Released in 1976, Awofofora is an overlooked but crucial entry in that sequence. At the time, its use of funk and reggae beats, electric guitars, and grooves drawn from contemporary Black popular music led some to misread it as a jazz-rock detour. In retrospect, it is entirely consistent with Brown’s methodology. As he admired in the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the stimulus comes from within the community. Here Brown filters Afro-Caribbean rhythms and funk through his own sensibility, abstracting their structural qualities rather than adopting surface style.

“La Placita,” making its first recorded appearance, layers distinct rhythmic phrases in a manner reminiscent of African drum ensembles, over which Brown and trumpeter Ambrose Jackson spin extended improvisations. The standard “Flamingo” is reshaped through diasporic rhythm and lyrical soloing, while “Pepi’s Tempo” and “Mangoes” harness crisp funk and reggae grooves to generate what Brown called a “manifestation of community” through collective improvisation. Even the overdubbed solo feature “And Then They Danced” reflects his structural thinking, ingeniously re-voicing a duet composition for two alto saxophones performed by one player.

This was the only recording by a short-lived band that briefly polarized audiences during festival appearances in 1976. Yet Brown consistently sought unity across change: different sounds, same principles — rhythm as structure, melody as architecture, collective improvisation, and above all, the primacy of tone. Awofofora stands not as a departure, but as a vivid synthesis of the elements he had been refining since the late 1960s, its grooves and golden alto lines conveying a sound drawn, in his words, “from life and from the world of experience.”

Besides his work as a painter, filmmaker and set designer, Philippe Lamiral Poirier (1951-2025) played guitar and saxophone in the group Kat Onoma, which he co-founded with Rodolphe Burger.

His fifth studio album combines his written texts with music composed by his son, Roméo Poirier, whom he considered to be cut from the same musical cloth as he was. It also confirms what has emerged from his previous albums, namely songs more spoken than sung and whose words evoke images, thus the album’s title – Images parlées.

A book of his paintings, Images traversées, will be published simultaneously with the album.

In this continual back and forth movement between text and image, music has always been present – sensitive and abstract, expressing nothing other than itself. It hollows out a place to tell us where we are. It is life without delay.

Roméo Poirier is working in the field of electronic music, focusing on heavy processing of samples and digital collage. He released albums on the London based record label Kit Records (Plage Arrière), the mancunian record label Sferic (Hotel Nota), and Jan Jelinek’s own imprint Faitiche (Living Room and Off The Record).

A1. – Itch & Scratch 5.32

Smoove puts the spotlight firmly on the larger-than-life vocals of Rufus Thomas, peeling things back to reveal hard-hitting breakbeat drums from the very first bar, anchored by a relentless, pounding bassline. Punchy brass stabs and rolling keys collide with dirty funk guitar riffs, all stretched out into an extended rework built for maximum floor impact.

A.2 Bouncy Lady 5.06

A classic jazz-funk break from 1975 gets a fresh twist as Smoove reworks the structure into a groovy, extended build-up. Vocal chants and handclaps take the lead, while the original sax solo is stripped away and replaced by a raw bass-and-guitar workout. The focus shifts squarely to the rhythm section, letting the drums ride all the way to the finish—ending with the studio engineer’s off-mic murmur on the tape: “beautiful.”

B1. – For The Love Of You 6.57


The Isley Brothers classic gets a loving reworking, with the groove locked in tight and the keyboards pushed front and centre letting the drums and bass drive home the groove. Those iconic falsetto vocals are spine-tingling, from start to finish.

B.2– I’m Trying 4.48

Lush, soulful strings and a deep-groove piano line glide over this drum-driven reinterpretation, opening up the raw, emotive vocal breakdowns of Carla Thomas and Pervis Staples. Originally scored by Isaac Hayes, this rework digs deep into the multitracks, uncovering previously unheard moments and giving them room to breathe.

Berlin-based label Ascension on Wax continues its deep, jazz-inflected trajectory with the forthcoming release A Quiet Storm EP from DFRA, arriving June on 12" vinyl and digital formats (Cat No: AOW005). Available to buy and pre-order from May 15, the EP showcases DFRA's refined blend of soul, jazz, and classic house sensibilities, enriched further by a remix from Detroit's Jon Dixon.
Hailing from Colombia and now based in Buenos Aires, DFRA (Diego Ruiz) brings a deeply musical approach shaped by formal studies in composition and a lifelong immersion in hip-hop, gospel, soul, and disco. His productions balance two complementary sides, lush, jazz-rooted musicality and the raw, driving energy of Detroit and Chicago house. This duality is fully realised across A Quiet Storm EP, marking another step in his evolving sonic identity.
The title track, "Quiet Storm," opens the record with a deep, rolling groove elevated by exquisite saxophone work, setting an introspective yet dancefloor-ready tone. "Strings" follows with a dreamy atmosphere, rich piano textures, and a warm jazz undercurrent that highlights DFRA's compositional finesse. On "Charlene," soulful vocals intertwine with chord progressions reminiscent of early Motor City Drum Ensemble, delivering a nostalgic yet forward-looking house cut.
Completing the package, Jon Dixon reimagines "Charlene" through a distinctly Detroit lens. Stripping the track back and rebuilding it with deeper textures and signature keys, Dixon channels the spirit of Underground Resistance while pushing into more meditative territory, bridging jazz improvisation with machine-driven rhythm.
Founded in Berlin, Ascension on Wax continues to honour the legacy of jazz within house music, pairing contemporary producers with a strong visual identity and limited vinyl releases. With A Quiet Storm EP, the label reinforces its commitment to soulful, authentic club music rooted in the traditions of the 90s US scene while looking firmly ahead.

"Nusa" is the last part of a trilogy started in 2020 with Masao Yamamoto and Akira Uchida. A project that began with light (“Sasanami”, 2020), moved through darkness (“Kurayami”, 2023), and returned to the ambivalence of the two (“Nusa”, 2026), which ultimately sustain and complement one another in all their variations and complementarities. Both in terms of tones and in the humanity that runs through us in these times of such stark contrast.

For this last part of the trilogy, Masao Yamamoto and Akira Uchida travelled to the island of Hokkaido at the beginning of 2026 to supplement the project with photographs and audio recordings of the ice and the surrounding landscapes.

Graduated in saxophone from Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, Akira Uchida explores sound through tuning, medieval music, and acoustics, supporting jazz pianists as a piano tuner. After training under instrument maker Masahiro Adachi, he became an independent clavichord builder. In 2020, he created an instrument for Ryuichi Sakamoto. In 2021, he crafted one using reclaimed wood from Kiyomizu-dera Temple (FEEL KIYOMIZUDERA). His work focuses on making, tuning, and performing instruments.

Mit "Eyes Full" legt Zoh Amba ein eindringliches Songwriter-Debüt vor - und zugleich die erste Veröffentlichung bei Matador. Bekannt geworden als Saxophonist:in der New Yorker Freejazz-Szene und gefeiert auf internationalen Festivals, kehrt Amba nun zu den eigenen Wurzeln zurück: zur Gitarre und zur Heimatstadt Kingsport in Tennessee. Die Songs auf "Eyes Full" tragen den rauen Geist dieser Landschaft in sich - zwischen schlingerndem Blues und Appalachian Folk. Im Zentrum steht das Sehen und Gesehenwerden. Amba richtet den Blick auf Menschen aus amerikanischen Kleinstädten: Arbeiter, Suchende, jene, die kämpfen und oft übersehen werden. Aufgewachsen in den Bergen Tennessees, zog Amba mit 17 nach San Francisco und später nach New York. Doch die Vergangenheit lässt sich nicht abschütteln - sie fordert ihre eigene Stimme. Lange glaubte Amba, dass instrumentale Musik allein zur Transzendenz führen könne. Doch irgendwann drängten sich Worte nach vorn. Die Gitarre wurde zum Werkzeug, um Erinnerungen und Erfahrungen direkt zu begegnen. So entstanden Songs voller Empathie für Menschen am Rand der Gesellschaft - Figuren zwischen Schmerz, Einsamkeit und Hoffnung. Aufgenommen wurde "Eyes Full" live und ohne Overdubs in den Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville. Kevin Hyland an der E-Gitarre und Jim White am Schlagzeug verleihen den Songs eine rohe, unmittelbare Kraft. Ambas Stimme knurrt, flüstert und brennt sich durch die Stücke. Zärtlichkeit und eruptive Energie liegen hier oft nur einen Herzschlag auseinander. "Eyes Full" ist ein Album, das hinschaut - und lange nachhallt.

Mit "Eyes Full" legt Zoh Amba ein eindringliches Songwriter-Debüt vor - und zugleich die erste Veröffentlichung bei Matador. Bekannt geworden als Saxophonist:in der New Yorker Freejazz-Szene und gefeiert auf internationalen Festivals, kehrt Amba nun zu den eigenen Wurzeln zurück: zur Gitarre und zur Heimatstadt Kingsport in Tennessee. Die Songs auf "Eyes Full" tragen den rauen Geist dieser Landschaft in sich - zwischen schlingerndem Blues und Appalachian Folk. Im Zentrum steht das Sehen und Gesehenwerden. Amba richtet den Blick auf Menschen aus amerikanischen Kleinstädten: Arbeiter, Suchende, jene, die kämpfen und oft übersehen werden. Aufgewachsen in den Bergen Tennessees, zog Amba mit 17 nach San Francisco und später nach New York. Doch die Vergangenheit lässt sich nicht abschütteln - sie fordert ihre eigene Stimme. Lange glaubte Amba, dass instrumentale Musik allein zur Transzendenz führen könne. Doch irgendwann drängten sich Worte nach vorn. Die Gitarre wurde zum Werkzeug, um Erinnerungen und Erfahrungen direkt zu begegnen. So entstanden Songs voller Empathie für Menschen am Rand der Gesellschaft - Figuren zwischen Schmerz, Einsamkeit und Hoffnung. Aufgenommen wurde "Eyes Full" live und ohne Overdubs in den Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville. Kevin Hyland an der E-Gitarre und Jim White am Schlagzeug verleihen den Songs eine rohe, unmittelbare Kraft. Ambas Stimme knurrt, flüstert und brennt sich durch die Stücke. Zärtlichkeit und eruptive Energie liegen hier oft nur einen Herzschlag auseinander. "Eyes Full" ist ein Album, das hinschaut - und lange nachhallt.

Shape of the Moon is the California based duo of Benjamin Burke and Bear Glass that explores existential headspaces beyond mundane frames of thought. Following streams of consciousness that contemplate the stardust that forms us to the very first human sound that reverberated through a cave, Shape of the Moon intertwines language and music into ambient dream-weaving narratives.

When the land is laid bare forms a collection of recordings composed of Burke reciting his introspective poems and Glass improvising gripping modular synth and string patterns. Burke brings a wealth of experience working between an impressively vast range of written and visual mediums to Glass’s live electronics and acoustic instrumentation mirroring the spoken word. The pieces on the album consist of excerpts from live outdoor performances under the night sky in the Mojave desert as well as sessions in Glass’s off-grid solar powered studio. Burke drapes vivid vocal narration over deeply immersive textures and melodies conjured up by Glass on Buchla, bass and sitar, painting peaks and valleys that live score the storytelling. The duo tread their own path fusing poetry with undulating electroacoustic instrumentals, arriving at meditative and ASMR territories that draw inspiration from ambient and electronica. Often joined on stage by guest musicians playing anything from Rhodes, percussion, jaw harp and saxophone, the recordings edge towards blues and spiritual jazz.

Benjamin Burke is a poet, writer, performer, and visual artist who spends his time lending a hand to unusual artistic expeditions around the world. Most recently, he helped to launch Dhun and Dhun School, a humanist eco-township and progressive education center on a 500 acre biopreserve in Rajasthan, India. He has written and performed countless unusual shows, experimenting widely and, through that, witnessing firsthand what makes ideas resonate for his audiences. This work evolved over time into an approach he refers to as Applied Poetics which he employs to help communities set intentions, scientists present their findings, and humanitarian organizations find their footing.

Bear Glass is a sound artist, multi-instrumentalist, music teacher, live sound engineer, and founding member of Mobius Acoustics who build innovative sound systems and host events on the West Coast (utilizing a quadraphonic setup for live performances and immersive drone bath sessions). Glass is involved in various collaborative projects with a couple of releases under different pseudonyms as well as a solo tape featuring a track with prolific producer Carlos Niño. For most of the year, Glass lives sustainably off-grid with his family on a plot of land outside Joshua Tree, a mini utopia infamous for his well curated private campouts and artist residencies. Wide skies, magnificent climates, and being surrounded by the love of family and friends inform Bear’s musical output and artistic practice.

Shape of the Moon present their debut album for Marionette’s 30th title, channeling an inquisitive yet playful state of mind that marvels at the mysteries of the universe.

Dr. Lonnie Smith’s 1969 album Turning Point featured the organ virtuoso with a dynamic band featuring Lee Morgan on trumpet, Julian Priester on trombone, Bennie Maupin on tenor saxophone, Melvin Sparks on guitar, and the funky drummer Leo Morris (aka Idris Muhammad). Highlights include covers of “See Saw” and “Eleanor Rigby” plus soulful originals.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal

In Gianfranco Rosi’s portrait of Naples, Sotto le Nuvole, the ground shakes periodically. Between Mount Vesuvius and the Tyrrhenian Sea, the fumaroles of the Phlegraean Fields hiss volcanic gas and steam. Below the sleeping volcano, modern day Naples emerges in black and white and fills with voices, with lives. From the traces of history and the concerns of the present, Rosi documents a city immersed in its continuous past, with Daniel Blumberg’s minimal soundscape hovering in a sonic space between liquid and air.
Tasked with creating a soundscape that would suspend space within Rosi’s film, Blumberg called upon the extended technique of saxophonists Seymour Wright and John Butcher to create a gossamer fabric of traces and sounds abstracted from their instruments. Having transitioned from theoretical physics to the saxophone, John Butcher has always deeply considered space in the context of his playing. His concerns are with flow, density and how the saxophone is situated in the living world. Zeroing in on the core sonic properties of the mechanical and acoustic components of the saxophone, Seymour Wright has integrated its every breath, reed vibration, keypad clatter and hissed microtone of his alto into his own, unique improvisational language. In his work with these two seminal players, Blumberg makes his most concentrated soundtrack to date - reinforcing the film's sense of overlapping time and space, and pushing at the limits of experimentation.

Initially recorded in Daniel’s flat in London, Butcher and Wright centre themselves around long, consistent tones, so soft that it seems breath is being gently pulled from the saxophone's bell by an invisible hand. Blumberg himself adds haunting bass harmonica, and recordings of Wright’s launeddas - a traditional and ancient triple pipe polyphonic reed instrument from Sardinia, Italy. Blumberg then travelled to the volcanic region of Baia, next to Pompeii. Once a flourishing classical Roman city loved by Nero, Baia slowly sank under hydrothermal pressure, leaving the city in a kind of geological purgatory. Using specialised geophones and hydrophones, Blumberg took those initial recordings and amplified them underwater, sending them calling out across the ruins of Baia’s mosaics, Nymphaeum statues and villas.

“It was important to me that the music was whispered in the same landscape that Gianfranco has worked for the past three years, so that you can hear the volcanic air gulping, the lapping of the waves, the steam and bubbles popping against John and Seymour’s saxophone breaths – an echo from a suspended time.”
What emerges is deeply melancholic, tender, subtle and right at the edges of audio technology. Submerged in an aquarian mausoleum, the mysterious vibrations of the saxophone and its bell become an echo of an echo, wading from the future into the past. ‘Sotto le Nuvole’ is less a soundtrack than a process of aeration - a sonic puncture in the material of the film which allows its central message to breathe, and a remarkable experiment at the limits of the saxophone’s possibility.

A few words for the album
Moment’s Aeternity:
a 12/8 composition celebrating the raw power of the “moment”, marked by whirling improvised moments between drums, bass clarinet and Harris P’s Armenian duduk.

Pajko, fire in the forest on the mountain:
in Sokratis own words: “I have a really vivid memory as a child. I was staring at the Djena mountain from my window in Archangellos which sits on the Pajko mountain. A little beam of light shone far in the horizon; it was a fire that in my little eyes looked as if the giants of Almopia were trying to communicate with each other using phryktoria (a way of contacting through fire in Ancient Greece).”

Footprints of some Giant Steps:
While the classic compositions of two true Jazz Giants- Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane- are certainly different, they do both connect in a mystical way. Rearranged in 5/8 combining half of each melody and half of each one’s chord progression, keeping the form of the piece for improvisation, still in 5.

Oson Zeis Fainou (Seikilo’s Epitaph):
found in a tomb stone in the Northeast of Greece, this is the only melody saved from the ancient times. It is accompanied by lyrics contemplating the meaning of life:
Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.
‘’While you live, shine
don’t feel blue for anything because our life is short and time demands an end.’’

Here is to Oghene K:
’’Hey man, where is the groove?’’, he would say, just to trigger another wave of inspiration for Sokratis. Oghene was a true force of nature, a well of kindness, a masterful artist that left this world too early. This one is for him.

Balkan Riff (for Milcho Leviev):
Milcho Leviev (1936-2019), was a long-time friend and collaborator and a true inspiration for expression, creativity and colorfulness. Expressing the deep sentiments evoked by the Balkan sound and history, this is a sorrowful dialogue between bass clarinet and contrabass.

Spirits of Djena:
one of the most esoteric and personal moments of the album. Composed and recorded during the challenging times of the COVID-era, you can hear the baritone and tenor saxophone firmly grounded on a crispy, hypnotizing contrabass groove.

Sokratis Votskos Quartet
Kostas Anastasiadis / Giorgos Klountzos - Chrysidis: Drums
Leandros Pasias: Piano
Vaggelis Vrachnos: Contrabass
Sokratis Votskos: Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet and Compositions


Sokratis Votskos is a jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, educator, and bandleader from Greece. Deeply invested in unearthing the folk sounds and heritage music of Greece and Eastern Europe, he weaves these into modern jazz compositions though the use of melodies, polyrhythms, and his reedy, timeless tone. He leads the Sokratis Votskos Quartet, he is one half of Kolida Babo and member of the Reggetiko Project. A highly regarded sideman and ensemble player, he has worked extensively with renowned jazz musicians with several highly acclaimed releases (MiC, Jazzman, Walt Disney and now Fair Weather Friends Records).

He has performed his music in numerous venues and festivals worldwide from Vinterjazz in Copenhagen, to the EFG London Jazz Festival where he performed at the legendary Ronnie Scott’s alongside Greg Foat.

He is also an archaeoacoustics researcher and enthusiast, having completed his Master studies on the field of ancient ritualistic caves of Greece research.

Leandros Pasias was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. At age 10 was introduced to piano, continuing his studies at the Modern Conservatory of Thessaloniki and later at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the department of jazz piano.Ηe holds a classical harmony diploma and a BA at the Department of Music Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In 2020 he received jazz improvisation lessons from Aaron Parks.

With a series of appearances in multiple international jazz festivals, Leandros has collaborated with a wide range of musicians from Nicolas Masson and James Wylie to Marina Osk, Ivo Papasov and Haris Lambrakis, among others.

A member of the Yako Trio, he released “OdesSea” on Fair Weather Friends Records (2021).

Vangelis Vrachnos was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1989. While he started playing the bass at the age of 12, alongside his brother, his studies would commence a few years later. Introduced to double bass at the age of 23, he undertook jazz double bass studies at the Codarts Αcademy of Rotterdam. He has participated in several festivals such as the Technopolis and Odessa international jazz festivals. Since returning to his hometown, in 2015, he has been a founding member of Mordana and Yako Trio and has collaborated with a series of musicians like James Wyllie, Sokrates Votskos and Dimitis Agelakis, among others.

Kostas Anastasiadis is a tireless researcher, that has been diligently studying Tradition and its evolution, creating a fresh amalgam of sound moods. His mature improvisational virtuosity highlights a uniquely individual artistic expression and was recognized with the ̈Unique Individual Stylist" award by the PIT (Percussion Institute of Technology) in Los Angeles, California. He has been associated with various ensembles that have garnered significant interest in the global music scene. As an educator, he is the founder of "The Harmony of Rhythm" musical method, which aims to explore and establish the elements that constitute the concept of rhythm.

Giorgos Klountzos-Chrysidis was born in Thessaloniki in 1991. Following studies at the Modern Conservatory of Thessaloniki, he moved to France and the Conservatoire de Nice. With performances at well-known festivals like Nice Jazz Festival, Nuits du Sud and Jazz à Vienne, he had the opportunity to meet the American drummer Leon Parker, who encouraged him to move to Paris, where he spent the next two years under his tutoring and guidance.

In 2016, came a defining moment in his career as he traveled to New York for the first time. He participated in the quartet of saxophonist Diego Rivera for a series of performances and attended lessons by Rodney Whitaker and Randy "Uncle G" Gelispie at Michigan's State University.

Collaborations include Xavier Davis, Ricky Ford, Nicolas Masson, Diego Rivera, Craig Bailey, Baptiste Herbin, Marc Abrams, Pantelis Stoikos, Antonis Anissegos, David Lynch, Ziad Rajab and Ivo Papasov, among others.

180g Heavy double vinyl LP with liner notes by Tyran Grillo. Limited Japanese Obi for the first pressing. Original artwork by Russell Mills and photography by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

The third Time Capsule is a body of dub reinterpretations by celebrated producer Bill Laswell of Ethiopian singer Gigi. Curated by Tokyo record collector, music researcher and seasoned reissue supervisor Ken Hidaka, it is the first time Illuminated Audio is pressed to vinyl after its CD release in 2003.

Ejigayehu Shibabaw was born in 1974 in Chagni, northwestern Ethiopia and by pursuing a career as a singer, went against her father’s strict, traditional gender roles. As Gigi, she embraced the same musical freedom she had strived for in her personal life, incorporating the Ethiopian church, funk, hip-hop, West and South African music into her work. She first settled in Nairobi, then Addis Ababa, where she quickly established herself as one of the city’s leading singers. A move to San Francisco in 1998 led to a long and fruitful creative partnership with bassist and producer Bill Laswell.

Around the same time, Chris Blackwell had stepped away from Island Records to start the art house film company and label Palm Pictures. He took an interest in Gigi and together with Laswell, pulled together an all-star cast of musicians for her self-titled US debut album, including Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter. It won international critical acclaim, not just for its musicianship but for making Gigi a “defining voice for the Ethiopian expatriate community”, as journalist Tyran Grillo praises in his Time Capsule liner notes. From the nation-defining 1896 victory over Italian invaders to the quiet revolutionaries who wear simple shemma garments, Grillo believes the themes in Gigi make it “a shower of sunlight on her homeland for those ignorant of its struggles.”

After its success, Blackwell encouraged them to go back into the studio to rethink the album and Illuminated Audio was born. “Anyone can make a voice sound worldly”, Grillo remarks, “but rare are those who can make one sound inner-worldly.” Gigi was clear with Laswell to give her vocals a minor role “because it’s already been done.” Instead her Amharic verse is fleeting, exhaling through the textures like ghostly fragments; soaring yet muted. Yet the album is still titled under her name, an assertion by Laswell of her central role in the album’s creation. Not only was it a fully endorsed project by Gigi, but she would be present throughout its development, giving feedback on half-finished ideas as Laswell played them back in the studio. “It works perfectly”, she reflected after the album’s release. “We wanted to capture the whole spirit of each track, and Bill’s remixes create a different music language that really puts you in a pleasant place”.

This new vocabulary takes its lead from a technical approach that Laswell had been perfecting during a furtive creative period at the turn of the millennium. Much like his ambient interpretations of Miles Davis (Panthalassa, 1998), Bob Marley (Dreams of Freedom, 1997), and Carlos Santana (Divine Light, 2001), Laswell approached Illuminated Audio by returning to the original multitrack masters. Gigi wasn’t just reworked, but recomposed into an expansive lattice of instruments, submerged in a watery ambience of dub and trance undercurrents.

Sonically, this new language that Gigi refers to, is manifested by the original album’s more understated parts being pushed to the fore. Explaining his contrasting methods, Laswell saw Gigi as being “put together in a way that fits”. Contrastingly, in Illuminated Audio, “a lot of things that I featured in the remix weren’t as audible in the original.” Instrumentation laying near-dormant, deep in the mix, are brought to the fore: the acid rock guitar and Wayne Shorter’s saxophone on ‘Tew Ante Sew’, Graham Haynes’ flugelhorn on ‘Nafekeñ’, Laswell’s bass on ‘Kahn’, the melodica in Mengedegna or the floating synths and talking drums in ‘Gud Fella’.

Brought to his attention by mentor DJ Nori, Hidaka describes Illuminated Audio as a “masterful sonic exploration into ethereal ambience and dub” and made sure this reissue also contained a full remaster to give its “deep musicality” much better dynamics and density in the overall sound. Hidaka admits that Laswell's music “is sometimes so out-there, it is often misunderstood” and, indeed, to dub album non-believers this might seem like a prolific producer imposing himself on another artist’s work; eternally developing rearrangements that never quite get to its destination. But that’s missing its true power and triumph. This is more than the reissue of a remix, but “a wholly unique musical entity”, as Hidaka describes. Illuminated Audio refers to the illuminated manuscripts that comprise the major part of Ethiopian art and its new compositions stand in proud solitude as a rare body of reworks that both informs and enhances their originals.

For more than two decades alto saxophonist Marshall Allen has carried
on the legacy and sound of the Sun Ra Arkestra - He turned 98 in 2022
and as evidenced by Living Sky, his influence and leadership remain
undiminished
On the group's first recording since the pandemic and their Grammy nomination,
bandleader Marshall Allen and company give us something we can hold onto, an
instrumental album rich in spirituality to guide us through the unknown yet again.
The album includes the first studio recording of Sun Ra's elaboration of Frederic
Chopin's "Prelude in A Major", first instrumental recording of Ra's "Somebody
Else's Idea". Features Allen's "Day of the Living Sky", a meditative work that is a
belated response to Sun Ra's composition "Night of the Living Sky" which is also
featured in the album.
Cover art by Damon Locks. Mixed & mastered by two time Grammy winner Dave
Darlington.

For more than two decades alto saxophonist Marshall Allen has carried
on the legacy and sound of the Sun Ra Arkestra - He turned 98 in 2022
and as evidenced by Living Sky, his influence and leadership remain
undiminished
On the group's first recording since the pandemic and their Grammy nomination,
bandleader Marshall Allen and company give us something we can hold onto, an
instrumental album rich in spirituality to guide us through the unknown yet again.
The album includes the first studio recording of Sun Ra's elaboration of Frederic
Chopin's "Prelude in A Major", first instrumental recording of Ra's "Somebody
Else's Idea". Features Allen's "Day of the Living Sky", a meditative work that is a
belated response to Sun Ra's composition "Night of the Living Sky" which is also
featured in the album.
Cover art by Damon Locks. Mixed & mastered by two time Grammy winner Dave
Darlington.

Twoosty Mayonez is a duo consisting of Bartosz Wolert (drums) and Kornel Karolak (synthesizers), creating post-jazz music and is considered to be part of the new Polish wave of this genre. The album is a continuation of the story begun in 2123, when Captain Harrison Focus, as a result of an emergency landing of his rocket, lands on the unknown planet Carmin. This story was described and released by U Know Me Records and this is how the (universe) world learned about Twoosty Mayonez. Their latest album is a story about what happens on the surface of the mysterious planet Carmin. This time, the main character of the album is Triceradiplodocus. The songs show changes in mood and atmosphere. The music is full of energy, harmony and emotions that reflect the diversity of the world the hero goes through.

All compositions were created on a weekend in September 2023, as a result of the duo's collective improvisation. The recordings were made at the Twoosty Room studio in Warsaw by the band's drummer.

The album features guest appearances by: Alicja Sobstyl (flute), Ola Szmidt (vocals), Wojtek Mazolewski (double bass), Olaf Węgier (sax). The cover was designed by Dominika Kiszkiel, and the mix and mastering was done by Maciek Goliński (Envee). The album, released in LP and digital formats by U JAZZ ME Records, is scheduled for January 9, 2025.

For vinyl enthusiasts and music lovers alike, this 7" release is an inspired pairing that bridges generations and genres. The A-side is Rock & Smooth’s masterful blend of soulful production and heartfelt lyricism. The iconic saxophone sample and poignant verses have solidified it as a timeless classic. On the flip we have The Beginning of the End's 1971 “When She Made Me Promise”, a vibrant funk track that exudes a breezy, carefree vibe. Its infectious groove and lively melody have made it a favourite for sampling by various hip-hop artists over the years

Elations Recordings presents "Terra Ignota", the long-awaited new full length album from elusive Melbourne-based fusion ensemble Krakatau. "Terra Ignota" marks a return and an epochal shift for the group, a deep exploration of possible sonic spaces and a portent of things to come.

In the years since 2016's cosmic jazz funk-prog-spiritual 12" "Tharsis Montes/Apogean Tide" Krakatau have worked on refining their craft as instrumentalists and writers, expanding further into the world of jazz and fusing influences from world folk musics, contemporary jazz and the European post-minimalist music of the 1980s and early 90s. "Terra Ignota", literally translated as "Unknown Land", takes its name from the cartographer's notation for uncharted territory, the blank spaces on maps where knowledge gives way to imagination and speculation, gesturing towards the group's studio explorations and search for new sonic worlds in the years spent developing the record.

The results are a diverse yet unified combination of sounds and influences across five tracks that see Krakatau drawing closer to the independent underground "world" jazz scene of the 1980s than anything contemporary. The album opens with the digi-minimalism and fourth world atmospherics of title track "Terra ignota", a percussion heavy latin fusion sound in "Birds of Passage", and melancholic ambient saxophone and synthesiser duo "In Memory". Three-part epic "Cosmetic Surgery" journeys through a long, complex post-minimalist arrangement into latin fusion and contemporary jazz, followed by the contemplative ECM-styled acoustic quartet closer "Trial in Absentia".

The album features significant contributions from saxophonist Rob Vincs, former Victorian College of the Arts head of Jazz and Improvisation and a collaborator with Australian musician Brian Brown; layered percussion and wordless vocals from Brazilian percussionist and esteemed songwriter Alcides Neto; and a guest performance from trumpet player Reuben Lewis on the title track.

Water Sign is the debut EP from producer and instrumentalist John Silas: a five-track suite that moves fluidly between peak-time dance and inward reflection. Deeply aligned with the open-eared ethos of NYC’s Love Injection Records, the release channels house and jazz into an emotive personal chronicle shaped by movement, memory, and community.

At its thematic center is “Boundaries,” a dynamically arranged dance-floor meditation that begins with piano, 4/4 kick and restless hi-hats before blooming into radiant synth work reminiscent of classic disco auteur Patrick Adams. Midway, the track shifts—electric piano, whistles and percussion reframing the groove into what Silas calls “hues of vulnerability.” The result mirrors the arc of love, release and renewal.“Cyber Dreams” leans into lush escapism, buoyed by surging keys and impassioned flute from Domenica Fossati, while a remix from Detroit mainstay Patrice Scott (Sistrum Records) adds unmistakable Motor City weight. “Foster Child” nods to Silas’ hero, the late Paul Johnson with exuberant Chicago spirit, and “Nasty” delivers a concise workout featuring Marquinn Mason’s robust saxophone.

Water Sign reflects Silas’s trajectory—from a childhood steeped in Soul Train, coming of age with hip hop, to MPC craftsmanship, his Detroit musical family and present-day Brooklyn—into a deeply personal record equally suited to discerning DJs and deep listeners.

Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders return with their best album yet, and a UK tour this August. Press by Silver PR
‘’On the alternate timeline where the Meat Puppets inherited the bulk of the Grateful Dead’s tourheads when Jerry Garcia died in 1995, none of this would be necessary, because Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders are a household name for evolving their own musical space that overlays dusty folk, cosmic jazz, deep psych, free improv, and even (gasp!) indie rock, building an audience that ranges from open-eared curiosity seekers to deep committed music weirdos that’s also yielded the Heavy Lidders, an infamous sub-cult of concert tapers that you’re already sick of hearing about. A lot of other things are better over on that timeline, too.
But in this consensus reality (and probably the other one, too), Liquid Donnon catches the Lidders at their heaviest, “heavy” in the Lidderverse being far from a monolithic musical idea. There’s heavy like the album-opening “From Loch Raven to Fells Point,” one of several tracks with elegant and gnarled conversational jams featuring the core Lidders lineup of Alexander alongside guitarist Drew Gardner and bassist Jesse Sheppard (both of Elkhorn) and drummer Scott Verrastro. But there’s heavy, too, like “Calliope Walker” and “Tightroping,” featuring Gardner shifted to dream-space vibraphone, the former with saxophonist Tacuma Bradley, the latter with Christina Carter of Texas noise-psych legends Charalambides on veil-crossing wordless vocals, her first collaboration with Alexander in some 20 years.
But then there’s also heavy like the cover photo of Alexander’s late friend and album namesake Donnon, taken at a Dead show at Rich Stadium in Buffalo in 1989, a spirit threading through the songs and weaving unexpectedly into Alexander’s life decades later, emerging especially when Alexander passed through a near-death experience of his own. But, taken together, the different heavies of Liquid Donnon add up into a state of musical grace, where all the Heavy Lidders from all the universes come together as one. Just, like, imagine.
Convened in 2019 on Alexander’s relocation back to his native east coast, the Heavy Lidders are the latest hard-touring expression for the guitarist’s music, joining a vast and tangled discography (and tape list) that includes the beloved long-running west coast Dire Wolves Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band and, before them, the Iditarod and Black Forest/Black Sea, as well as a bushel of solo play-all-the-instruments projects, a stint with Jackie-O Motherfucker, sessions with Kemialliset Ystävät and Avarus and others, and you’ll have to keep digging for the rest.
And while it’s not hard to find tapers at Lidders gigs (and they encourage you to be one), or to track themes and songs over Alexander’s many live releases, Liquid Donnon makes a new primary text, the original versions of six new pieces for the repertoire. The album closes with a devastating pairing of “Reservoir Drop” into “The Summer Song,” floating into a duo between Alexander’s guitar and Carter’s voice. Catch a half-dozen Lidders shows this summer, and you might not ever catch them playing it like that again, but you just might open the doorway back to that better place." - Jesse Jarnow (writer, WFMU DJ, producer and host of The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast)

“L’École de la nuit” marks Versatile Records’ 30th anniversary with a musical découpage by label founder Gilb’R. The album’s 12 songs and numerous collaborations form an adroit exploration of life and music, all threaded together by lifelong “partner in crime” I:Cube’s signature mixdowns.

“Hà mar” represents the peak of the album’s organic spectrum—an instantly captivating melodic and percussive Brazilian song featuring Alvaro Lancellotti on guitar and vocals—while “White Light” serves as its electronic counterpart, with a classic pop feel, featuring Swedish singer Monica Tormell

Musically, “L’École de la nuit” moves across many different landscapes and languages, intersecting rock, shoegaze, ambient, electronica, and, of course, jazz. Gilb’R collaborates with a rich arsenal of guest musicians: saxophonist Quentin Rollet; guitarist and producer Maxime Delpierre; French artist Judah Warsky, with whom Gilb’R previously released an album; Jonny Nash, producer and guitarist; as well as Ben Shemie. Not least, father and son Julio and Julinho Pimentel contribute their distinctive percussion, alongside François Creamer on bass clarinet.

“L’École de la nuit” is the 50th album release on Versatile Records. It was initiated in Amsterdam, then entirely reimagined and rebuilt in Paris. It stands as a manifesto for the album format and a tribute to the listener.

Growing together both personally and musically… That is indeed the good fortune of the musicians in the Marseille-based trio ubaq. We’re talking about bassist Antoine Carletto, guitarist Lucas Schemidt, and drummer Antoine Saussol, winners of the Rezzo springboard competition at Jazz à Vienne 2025. In their early twenties, they met in their late teens while still honing their musical skills. Nearly ten years later, they burst onto the scene, in perfect harmony, with their very first album, “Night WIP,” a follow-up to their EP, “20bis,” released in 2024. They owe their stylized stage name—written in lowercase with a “q”—to the ubac, that side of a mountain with very little sun exposure, where twilight reigns. “We liked that idea because we’re night owls,” says bassist Antoine Carletto. Hence the “night” for “nuit” and the “WIP” for “Work In Progress,” explains guitarist Lucas Shemidt. ubaq’s music is characterized by a nocturnal, melancholic heaviness, pierced by beams of light. “We love creating music that soothes us and highlights the precious nature of composing and playing in complete harmony,” says Antoine Carletto. “We cultivate complex tones, sometimes difficult to bear, whether they’re nostalgic or even verging on depression. But we manage to convey emotions without falling into clichés,” adds Antoine Saussol. Night and twilight serve as the perfect catalysts for this trio, which moves forward with perfect chemistry and harmony.

On this album, they feature the German-Armenian rapper and singer Talin, who is also based in Marseille. She appears on the track “Regarding Others,” where she chants that even though the year 2026 may see mothers weeping in every corner of the world, she still manages to smile. Thus, this track explores the three musicians’ relationship with the world and the necessity of looking at others. The unsettling “Sciatiq,” the haunting “Sakakinik,” and the ambivalence of “Flayosc”—the final track, on which the trio features trombonist Jules Regard—owe their titles to the musicians’ own observations and experiences. The multi-faceted track “Proud,” in two parts, is a tribute to Lucas Schemidt’s mother, who has since passed away. The presence of wind instruments—whether Jules Regard’s trombone or Mathieu Fabre’s saxophone on the intense track “From The Ending”—adds textures missing from the natural landscape depicted in “Night WIP.” This debut album captures the obsessions and introspective wanderings—sometimes anxious, sometimes enchanted—of a trio that cultivates melody as a pledge of warm fulfillment.

Golden Earring were together between 1961 and 2021, and their last and best known line-up included two founding members George Kooymans (vocals and guitar) and Rinus Gerritsen (bass, keyboard) along with Barry Hay (vocals, guitar, flute and saxophone) a member since 1968 and Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums) a member since 1970.

They had over 40 hits and released 30 albums, many achieving either gold or platinum status in their home country, The Netherlands. They are best known for their 1973 hit single "Radar Love" and their 1982 single "Twilight Zone".

Around 1992, the unplugged sessions on MTV were a trend; almost every rock band or artist was doing them. Bass player Rinus Gerritsen suggested to record an acoustic album themselves. The record company wasn't very enthusiastic at first so with a small budget the band recorded the album live in an intimate cafe in Amsterdam. The Naked Truth turned out to be the Golden Earring's best selling album.

The Naked Truth is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on purple vinyl. The 2LP is packaged in a deluxe sleeve with linen laminate finish and includes an insert.

Art Blakey is one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. Known as a powerful musician and a vital groover his brand of bluesy, funky hard bop was and continues to be profoundly influential on mainstream jazz. For more than 30 years, his band Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers included many young musicians who went on to become prominent names in jazz.

Released in the late fifties, A Night In Tunisia is a jazz milestone and prime example of Blakey's exceptional rhythmic prowess. This album is not all about drumming though; it leaves much space for great melodical interplay by fellow musicians Sam Dockery on piano, John Griffin and Ferris Benda on saxophone, Bill Hardman on trumpet and Jimmy De Brest on double bass.

A Night In Tunisia is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on orange vinyl, and is packaged in a deluxe sleeve with linen laminate finish.

The small print:
• Due to rights restrictions, this item is only available in the MOV store to European customers.

he voice of the 1983 soul smash “Love Town” features on these two songs recorded in 1995 but only released now for the first time. Booker Newberry III was an original member of 70s soul group Sweet Thunder (“Everybody’s Singin’ Love Songs”). Mike Stevens is the UK sax player who in the early 90s collaborated and played on productions for Wag ‘Ya’ Tail (a version of “Expansions” released as ‘Xpand Ya Mind’) and Dreaming A Dream (a version of “Mister Magic” with Solar DJ Louie Martin) before joining Take That as a regular musician and Music Director.
In 1995 Booker was visiting the UK and worked on sessions which remained unreleased until now. A cassette of the songs was given to soul DJ Richard Searling in the early 2000s, and his plays over the years has lead to an insatiable appetite for them to come up. “Just Can’t Give You Up” was originally by Mystic Merlin, “I Can’t Forget About You” a soul gem Ronn Matlock first released in 1979, now both given the powerful Booker Newberry III vocal treatment only he could give.

Angel Witch is a pioneering British heavy metal band formed in London in 1976. Together with bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon and Diamond Head, Angel Witch is a key part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM), they are recognized as a major influence on early 1980s metal, including bands like Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth.

The band lineup back then consisted of Kevin Heybourne, Kevin Riddles and Dave Hogg. Angel Witch's self-titled 1980 debut album is considered a seminal, influential work, and to this day metalheads all over the world sing along to the title track Angel Witch whenever it's played. The album cover features an image of a well-known painting; The Fallen Angels Entering Pandemonium by John Martin.

Angel Witch is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on silver vinyl.

Maximum Exposure Inc. presents Joy Rider, the debut album from Down Town, the Toronto duo of Ian Elias Afif (bass+effects) and Maxwell Cecil Stover (soprano saxophone + electronics).

Produced and mixed in collaboration with Tony Price in Toronto, Joy Rider portrays a new vision for low-end music as sculpture. Liquid bass paintings, alloy tone abstractions — a virtual still life formed out of fretless aluminum bass, specular soprano saxophone cybernetics, and metallic rhythm architectures.

These pieces belong to a lineage of post-minimalist, low-end experimentalism that treats electroacoustic improvisation and ambient synthesis as mutable sound matter - Joe Zawinul's circuitboard cartographies, the insurgent bass guitar mutations of Bill Laswell, Mick Karn, and Robbie Shakespeare, Evan Parker's recursive multiphonic sax investigations, the most textural sides from the ECM catalogue and the sonic holography constructed by Jon Hassell and Michael Brook during their sessions with Eno and Lanois Hamilton, Ontario.

The album unfolds like a series of suspended environments - music for inside a city.

Der mehrfach preisgekrönte Londoner Jazz-Saxofonist startet mit seinerm neuen Soloalbum sein eigenes Label.

Multiinstrumentalist, Produzent und Künstler Shabaka (Hutchings) veröffentlicht mit "Of The Earth" sein drittes Soloalbum, das gleichzeitig das erste ist, das über sein eigenes Label Shabaka Records erscheint und komplett von ihm selbst geschrieben und produziert wurde. Auf "Of The Earth" kehrt Shabaka zu seinem charakteristischen Saxophonklang zurück, ergänzt durch ausgefeilte Elektronik und Produktion sowie traditionelle Holzblasinstrumente und Perkussion aus aller Welt. Diese Kombination unterstreicht sein vielseitiges Talent und prägt den Gesamtklang des Albums. Hutchings genießt hohes Ansehen für seine Arbeit mit The Comet Is Coming, Sons Of Kemet, Shabaka And The Ancestors sowie für die beiden jüngsten Soloprojekte "Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace" (2024) und "Afrikan Culture" (2023). Als Musiker arbeitete er bereits mit einer Vielzahl namhafter Künstler zusammen, darunter Andre 3000, Floating Points, Mulatu Astatke, The Sun Ra Arkestra, Lianne La Havas, Saul Williams und viele mehr. "Of The Earth" erscheint als schwarze Vinyl-LP, als limitierte kornblumenblaue Vinyl-Edition und als CD. Beide Vinyl-Formate enthalten ein Booklet mit Hutchings' eigenem Artwork.

„It’s the Blues Man!“ ist das Debütalbum von Gitarrist, Harmonikaspieler, Sänger und Songwriter Eddie
Kirkland aus dem Jahr 1962, auf dem er von Saxofonist King Curtis und dessen Band begleitet wird.
Die kraftvolle Aufnahme stellt Kirklands raue, markante Stimme sowie seinen präzisen, groove-orientierten
Gitarrenstil eindrucksvoll in den Vordergrund.
In Zusammenarbeit mit Acoustic Sounds wurde das Album (AAA) von den Originalbändern remastered –
verantwortlich dafür war Matthew Lutthans im The Mastering Lab – und auf 180-Gramm-Vinyl gepresst.
Eine hochwertige Tip-on-Coverhülle mit Obi rundet das Gesamtpaket ab.

Roland Kirk was an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist, who lost his sight at a very early age, and played unconventional jazz, which was not entirely free but in which melodic and very beautiful phases alternated with moments of complete dissonance and conjured up his urban background, especially reflecting his view of the world as a handicapped man. Kirk was not only famous for his unique sound achieved through his playing several instruments simultaneously and his innovative approach to music but also for his dynamic live performances.

In November 1967 Kirk left EmArcy for Atlantic Records, leading his quartet through a highly introspective, somewhat melancholy programme, which was based in the blues and groove traditions of the mid-60s. Kirk himself played flutes, the stritch, manzello and tenor saxophones, the whistle, clarinet and more – precisely those instruments that had created his unique sound, particularly when some of these instruments were played simultaneously by him. Jazz critics who had previously criticised Kirk’s sound now praised him once they had heard the restrained and elegantly layered "Black And Crazy Blues", the breathtakingly executed Creole "Love Call", the razor-sharp soul in "The Inflated Tear" and the gyrating lyricism of the winds in "Fly By Night" – and quite rightly so.

Roland Kirk convinced his listenership anyway and sold over 10,000 copies of the present LP in the very first year of its release. This is Roland Kirk in his most competent and visionary form; his reading of jazz harmony and capricious sonances is virtually incomparable.

Obsessed With You The Early Years' is an official release of the early X-Ray Spex demo recordings which would evolve into the celebrated pioneering 'Germ Free Adolescents' album. Also includes early versions of classic Punk pioneering debut single tracks 'Oh Bondage, Up Yours!' and 'I Am A Cliché’.

Recorded in 1977, the majority of these recordings feature original saxophonist Lora Logic and capture the raw instinctive power of the band who seemed to arrive fully formed despite their youth. The iconic vocal stylings of Poly Styrene immortalised here are even more visceral than what was recorded for the final product and further indicate just how much inspiration they lent Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna and the Riot Grrrls that followed. Elsewhere, an early take on 'Germ Free Adolescence' has subtle electronic influences that hint at a potential future the band didn't hang around long enough to fulfil.

This fascinating document is released in various limited edition vinyl formats. 'Day-Glo' orange or 'Day-Glo' pink vinyl with laser die-cut outer sleeve and 'Day-Glo' inserts. The sleeve design is based on original Poly Styrene artwork and brand new sleeve notes from Paul Dean and Lora Logic also feature. Also available on Compact Disc and Digital.

Jazz-fusion, disco-funk, Latin jazz and batucada rhythms get the Filipino treatment onAfter Midnight, the sublime second album from keyboardist Boy Katindig. Originally released in 1980, After Midnight draws heavy influence from soul and funk contemporaries in the US as well as Latin America, in particular the famed Brazilian percussionist Paulinho da Costa.

It’s a testament to his musical prowess that Katindig weaves effortlessly between styles and tempos. His reverence for Paulinho da Costa extends far, with covers of several songs from the latter’s 1979 Happy People album. This includes slow-burner ‘Déjà Vu’ written by Isaac Hayes originally for Dionne Warwick; on the Filipino instrumental version, local legends Jun Regalado and Roger Herrera (from Regalado’s ‘Pinoy Funk’ single) are reunited on drums and bass respectively.

But Katindig’s original compositions hold just as much weight and unique personality: title track ‘After Midnight’ opens with a sultry funk serenade reminiscent of The Isley Brothers, and quickly transforms into a catchy, blistering, saxophone chorus that brims with swagger. Hidden B-side gem ‘Got The Need’ is an uptempo tribute to batucada that would not be out of place in a jazzy house set, and boasts increasingly elaborate and psychedelic solos from Katindig on keys and Ben Concepcion on soprano sax.

Meanwhile, ‘Love Till the End of Time’ is a masterclass in instrumental disco funk, penned by the prolific Greg Phillanganes who at that same time was writing for many of the greats including Chaka Khan, George Benson, Stevie Wonder, The Jacksons and Cheryl Lynn.

This album is lovingly reissued by Sama Sama Records, a boutique label from DJ and collector Norsicaa, who ran the esteemed Soundway Records for 8 years and released the compilation Ayo Ke Disco in late 2024.

As a tribute to Vladimir sivc aka FUNKY DESTINATION who sadly passed away in march last year, SOOPASOUL is releasing this limited edition special updated version of the now classic '' The Inside Man- REMIX '' pt.1 has been completely rebuilt from the ground up , on the flip is pt.3 .. which is previously unreleased and features Paul 'Dewey' haywood on Tenor sax and Tony wright on Congas as well as toasting and additional guitars by Soopasoul.

Glenn Underground is the founding member of the Strictly Jaz Unit. He was raised on disco classics and freeform jazz in Chicago's Southside, the place where house music was born. Taking inspiration from Chicago's original pioneers, Larry Heard, Ron Hardy, Lil' Louis, and the like, Glenn has produced many sought after house gems for some of the most well respected deep house labels such as Prescription and Guidance.
The Jerusalem EP's, GU's second album for Peacefrog originally released in 1997 still sounds so fresh, so deep and so soulful. Blending jazz-tinged chord progressions with sax accents, and rolling basslines the album evokes the sound of late-’90s hypnotic Chicago house.
Timeless, quality, underground house music for the mind, the body and especially the soul.

The Reflex has been back remixing on his multitracks again and if you have been out anywhere decent in recent times you might already have heard this one as it has been a favourite of those DJs in his inner circle. Finally, the unrelated rework of a legendary disco diva arrives on wax and dazzles from front to back. 'Lolita' has it all - the deft hi hats sliding above funky bass, a rhythm driven by busy piano chords and lung-busting vocal full of burning soul. 'Camels' rides funky, chunky drums and has more expressive tones this time in unison with an off-balance chord sequence and fluttering sax. Lovely stuff.

Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was still establishing his unique identity on his early Blue Note sides including the 1957 sextet album Hank Mobley (BLP 1568) featuring saxophonist Curtis Porter, trumpeter Bill Hardman, pianist Sonny Clark, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Art Taylor. The set swings mightily while showcasing Mobley’s lyrical flow throughout.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is mono, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl.

Studio Kosmische duo Dom Keen and Jonathan Parkes collaborate with Russian saxophonist Ivan Bursov to create rolling waves of hymns to supine meditation. The gorgeous 'In Search Of Magick' and 'Eternal Dream Musick' conjure free-form sax and psychedelic ambience over undulating bass. "As Above, So Below' finds swelling guitars celebrating a distant storm, while 'Golden Dunes' offers a shimmering sound bath. 'Esoteric Modulation' breaks the spell with echoed sax and thundering synth. Beautiful

MJ - ELECTRONIC SOUND MAG


Like all Studio Kosmische records, Electronic Meditation for Inner Space Travel is less a collection of tracks than a single, unbroken experience. It flows with purpose, every note a step in a silent procession toward understanding.

There’s no urgency, no climax, just a graceful surrender to the unknown. When it ends, the world feels quieter, your thoughts slower, the air lighter. This one’s a record to play deep into the night, when the sky outside your window looks almost purple and the world feels bigger than you remember. Drop the needle, close your eyes, and let the music lead you through the dunes.

Somewhere out there, the sorcerers are still gathering, still searching, still dreaming.

At the beginning of the 1960s, at the Berklee College of Music, Byard Lancaster met some feisty friends: Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell and Ted Daniel. It is easy to see why he rapidly became involved in free jazz. Once he was settled in New York, he appeared on Sunny Murray Quintet, recorded under the leadership of the drum crazy colleague of Albert Ayler.

In 1968, the saxophonist and flutist recorded his first album under his own name: It’s Not Up To Us. The following year he came to Paris in the wake of... Sunny Murray. He would come back to France in 1971 (again with Murray) and in 1973 (without Murray for a change). This is when he met Jef Gilson, the pianist and producer who encouraged him to record under his own name again.

On Palm Records (Gilson’s label), he would release four albums: Us, Mother Africa, Exactement and Funny Funky Rib Crib.

“Funny Funky Rib Crib” is an unforgettable recording (made up of several sessions dating from the middle of 1974) of creative jazz overwhelmed by funk and soul.

If Lancaster had already made successful albums in the same genre – notably New Horizons, under the name Sounds Of Liberation which he co-led with Khan Jamal –, this one is an homage to James Brown and Sammy Davis enjoying the company of a host of guests including François Tusques (electric piano), Clint Jackson III (trumpet), François Nyombo (guitar), Joseph Traindl (trombone)...

Funny Funky Rib Crib’s cover is a three-quarter profile portrait of the saxophonist (who can also be heard on flute, piano and even vocals), however, on the record, it is the whole group, inspired and frenetic, that tests the melodies of “Just Test”, “Dogtown” or “Rib Crib” – the two versions of which display leader Lancaster’s art of nuance. On both sides of the album, the group also moves into a calmer groove, infused by blues and soul, “Work And Pray” and “Loving Kindness” are meditative tracks where listeners can lay back and relax before asking for more: Funny Funky Rib Crib

Berlin lo-fi crooner Der Assistent returns with "Ultramarin", a sun-faded suite of soft-focus pop, Balearic grooves and late-night yacht moods drifting between languages, moods and references – slightly surreal, and quietly melancholic.
Following the tropical haze of its predecessor "Amnesie am Amazonas", his third album makes a slightly bigger splash: classic late-80s digital pianos, downbeat grooves and flashes of dub-reggae intertwine with subtle soprano and alto saxophone lines that drift between lounge melancholy and nocturnal jazz.
Laid-back opening cut “Wenn der Scirocco weht” pays homage to Japanese lovers rock, while the dubby downbeat title track celebrates the color blue in French, English, Italian and German, echoing situationist slogans and painter Yves Klein’s idea of “the invisible becoming visible.” Lead single “Mann am Telefon” dives into hazy yacht-pop and lo-fi soul, gradually unfolding into an instrumental outro that recalls the early synth romanticism of Vangelis.
Across the album, Der Assistent traces a playful tale of split personalities – with subtle nods to Fight Club and Blade Runner – culminating in the lush closing 80s R&B ballad “Total Confusion”.

Written, recorded, produced and mixed entirely by Der Assistent, Ultramarin also inaugurates his new imprint of the same name.
RIYL: Fishmans, Eddie Chacon, The Zenmenn.

Gary Bartz und das neue Londoner Ensemble Your Brother’s Keeper präsentieren mit "Where Rivers Meet" ein tiefgründiges und intuitives Studioalbum, das die seltene Begegnung zweier Generationen von Jazzmusikern einfängt. Das Album, das pünktlich zum 20-jährigen Jubiläum von Brownswood erscheint, vereint Bartz' Tradition mit der jungen, pulsierenden Szene Londons. Das Ergebnis ist Musik, die sich mit Offenheit und Intensität entfaltet, getragen von tiefem Zuhören und gemeinsamer Improvisation.

Im Zentrum des Projekts steht Bartz, eine der einflussreichsten Vertreter des modernen Jazz. Der Saxophonist, dessen Karriere sich über mehr als fünf Jahrzehnte erstreckt, machte sich einen Namen durch Auftritte mit Charles Mingus, Max Roach und Art Blakey, bevor er sich Miles Davis in dessen elektrisierender Phase der frühen 1970er-Jahre anschloss. Mit seinen gefeierten Aufnahmen mit der NTU Troop wurde er schnell zu einer prägenden Figur des Spiritual Jazz und schuf ein Werk, das Generationen von Musikern und Zuhörern gleichermaßen begeistert. Sein Spiel – lyrisch, tiefgründig und unverkennbar gefühlvoll – zählt nach wie vor zu den markantesten Stimmen des Jazz.

Das Album markiert zudem die Gründung von Your Brother’s Keeper, einem neuen Kollektiv um Schlagzeuger und Produzent Jake Long (Maisha), dessen musikalischer Dialog und die Improvisation tief in der Musik verwurzelt sind. Mit Ali MacSween (Piano, Synthesizer, modulare Effekte), Axel Kaner-Lidstrom (Trompete), Twm Dylan (Kontrabass), Tim Doyle (Percussion) und Chelsea Carmichael (Tenorsaxophon) sowie Long am Schlagzeug spiegelt die Gruppe eine Szene wider, die den Sound des zeitgenössischen Jazz im letzten Jahrzehnt maßgeblich geprägt hat.

Mauro Pawlowski's 'Unspectacular Times' is the sound of an artist completely at ease with himself, and with the world, in all its ordinary, unglamorous beauty. Ten songs rooted in everyday observation and emotion, produced by Scorpio Twins (Stephane Misseghers and Bruno Coussée) with a full 24-carat 80s gloss: lush synths and basslines.

Where everything around us seems to demand maximum volume and instant outrage, Pawlowski turns that logic quietly inside out. These are songs about love that sneaks up on you, desire that builds in an art gallery, and a Nobel Prize winner falling off his bike and giving a thumbs up. Small moments, but in Pawlowski's hands, that's where everything worth paying attention to actually lives.

Guest appearances from Brianne Dunne (Daryl Hall & John Oates) and Pol Coussée, a Belgian saxophonist who found his way from London to Toronto and has played alongside Barry White and Isaac Hayes.

Following the 70s-tinged 'Eternal Sunday Drive', his second album on Unday Records 'Unspectacular Times' is Pawlowski's most pop focused to date. His most recent chapter in a career that has taken him from Evil Superstars to dEUS, through theater, dance, film and more alter egos than most artists have albums.

Chet Is back! is the 1962 studio album by the undisputed master of the trumpet, Chet Baker. The album was recorded in Rome, Italy at RCA's studios. Chet is backed by a group of then up-and-coming European jazz musicians, which included Belgian saxophonist Bobby Jaspar, Belgian guitarist Rene Thomas, Italian pianist Amedeo Tommasi, French bassist Benoit Quersin, and Swiss drummer Daniel Humair

Chet Is Back! features compositions by Chet's contemporaries, like Thelonious Monk's "Well, You Needn't", Charlie Parker's "Barbados" and Sonny Rollins' "Pent Up House". The album also includes an original composition by Amedeo Tommasi entitled "Ballata in forma di blues". Although Chet's sweet and tragic vocals are not featured on this album, his soaring and lyrical trumpet playing makes up for it.

Chet Is Back! is available on audiophile black vinyl.

At the beginning of the 1960s, at the Berklee College of Music, Byard Lancaster met some feisty friends: Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell and Ted Daniel. It is easy to see why he rapidly became involved in free jazz. Once he was settled in New York, he appeared on Sunny Murray Quintet, recorded under the leadership of the drum crazy colleague of Albert Ayler.

In 1968, the saxophonist and flutist recorded his first album under his own name: It’s Not Up To Us. The following year he came to Paris in the wake of... Sunny Murray. He would come back to France in 1971 (again with Murray) and in 1973 (without Murray for a change). This is when he met Jef Gilson, the pianist and producer who encouraged him to record under his own name again. On Palm Records (Gilson’s label), he would release four albums: Us, Mother Africa, Exactement and Funny Funky Rib Crib.

The recording of “Exactement” required two sessions in the studio: February 1st and May 18th 1974 – in between the two dates, Lancaster recorded, alongside Clint Jackson, the excellent Mother Africa. Two names appear on the cover of “Exactement”: Lancaster (Byard) and Speller (Keno). Byard Lancaster wanted to be precise, moving regularly from one instrument to another: first on piano, which was the first instrument he learned. On “Sweet Evil Miss Kisianga”, his inspiration is first and foremost Coltrane (even if leaning more towards Alice than John), this announces the storm to follow.

It is Lancaster’s horn-playing which really stands out: on alto (the sound of which is transformed by an octavoice on one track, "Dr. Oliver W. Lancaster") or soprano saxophones, as well as on flute or bass clarinet, the musician walks a tightrope making the most of all the risks he takes. Using the full register of his instruments, he has fun with the possibilities.

Then, Lancaster invokes or evokes Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and even Prokofiev, before going into a danse alongside Keno Speller on percussion. Above all, he has a unique sound. Byard Lancaster, on whatever instrument he plays and by continually seeking, always ends up hitting the right note... ends up by playing exactement the note he had to play.

Clairvoyant Dimensions is the first album by Mei Honeycomb, a new duo of Jordan Czamanski, renowned as a member of the acclaimed Juju & Jordash and the Magic Mountain High project, with solo work released as Jordan GCZ, and legendary saxophonist Jeff Hollie, known mostly for his work with Frank Zappa and Ike Willis. An explorative ambient album, Clairvoyant Dimensions is an exercise in distance and contemplation, and the exhilarating feeling of insight, however fleeting, like staring at the midnight flicker of an old VCR. Czamanski's music has a trademark tenderness and soft-spokenness, an ability to maximize minimalist musical elements and bring them to an open-ended conclusion. Jeff Hollie provides interpretative sax lines on all tracks, slipping into the scene like a shadow, silent and unexpected, touching upon emotional registers almost explicit, yet confounding.

As musical signifiers keep turning around themselves, they set up a mood of euphoria, one that suggests understanding. Never explicitly spaced-out, there is continuous reference to cosmoses both inward and far away. Ambient music in modern form. Jordan Czamanski uses his experience in producing off-the-charts club music to come up with five tracks that at times are standstills, and at times dwell in forward momentum. Jeff Hollie provides both comprehension and beautiful confusion. As grainy images switch into focus, Clairvoyant Dimensions is a beautiful and contemplative trip that suggests its own reality in delicate ways. One of the five tracks, the gorgeous live-recorded Painted Desert Pastel, features composer, performer, and researcher Ilya Ziblat Shay on double bass and electronics.

Screen-printed cover designed by Johan Kauth.
Mastering by Rashad Becker

Renowned Italian jazz master Nicola Conte presents an incandescent limited edition 7" single for Record Store Day 2026. "Terra Em Transe" and "Naquela Base" are brand new tracks from sessions for Conte's forthcoming Far Out Recordings album, drawing deep from early 70s Brazilian jazz and modal hard bossa while underlining the vital role of the arts in social and political struggle.

In Nicola's own words: "Terra Em Transe' is a dedication to visionary director Glauber Rocha and to all free thinkers willing to portray the conflicts, contradictions and lies of those in power around the world." The original composition takes inspiration from Milton Nascimento's vocal harmonies and Tamba 4's sophisticated samba-jazz.

'Naquela Base' is a stunning reinvention of João Donato's classic: pure modal hard bossa recorded entirely live in the studio. Inspired by samba-jazz classics like Tenório Jr.'s "Embalo" and Paulo Moura's "Fibra", the track is carried beautifully by Teppo Mäkynen's masterful drumming, with solos from Gaetano Partipilo on alto saxophone and Pietro Lussu on piano, supported by Ameen Saleem on double bass and Abdissa Assefa on percussion.

Having released music with Blue Note, Impulse! and Schema records, Nicola Conte's relationship with Far Out Recordings has produced his acclaimed Umoja project, his five-part Viagem compilation series, and most recently Viaggio, a compilation exploring Italy's library music renaissance from 1970-79.

'Terra Em Transe / Naquela Base' will be released as a limited edition 7" single for Record Store Day 2026 via Far Out Recordings.

The Rhythm Of Nature’ is the stunning new masterpiece from Andy Compton (The Rurals) and Shamrock!

Written between Andy’s tours in South Africa and Shamrock’s extended UK trip in the summer of 2025, this album embodies their shared mission: to spread positive, joyful vibrations with LOVE.

Here, Soul, Jazz, and African music blend seamlessly through the talents of these two cosmic brothers, connected deeply by their love of making music.

When Andy and Shamrock jam and record, music flows so freely, creating a powerful, spiritual energy.

This follow-up to their 2023 debut album, Soul & Spirit — which still touches hearts worldwide — includes magical songs like ‘Bunny Chow’ and ‘Rosa Mziki’, originally created in Johannesburg and previously released on the Bunny Chow EP, Along with super fresh, unheard gems.

The album also features incredible musicians such as Nekoye Ommeh (Vocals), Pete Morris (Keys), Bongani Sessionist (Percussion), Kafele Bandele (Trumpet), and Charlie Hearnshaw (Sax), adding their magical energies to the soundscape.

Allow yourself to experience the full journey, feel and enjoy every note!

Now marking eight years in the underground, Blur Records delivers a various artist collection that reflects its sound across always floor-facing cuts across a house and disco spectrum tinged with retro flair. 'Back To The Disco' by Hotmood opens with big loops and a hands in the air grove that is high on funky-disco vibes, while Delfonic keeps things tight on 'Let's Do The Magic' which centres a vocal hook and busy chords. Elsewhere, Crackazat's sultry rework of Scruscru's 'Just House' adds a jazz-leaning touch and 'Touch Me' shifts into a more restrained, late-night mood. Closing with the deep, plump drums of Sven Wegner's sexy, sax-laced 'Chuck The Boom', the collection stays consistently accessible and groovy throughout.

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

Fresh Meat Records is proud to present the vinyl re-release of From Chicago With Love, a record originally produced and released by Mazi Namvar (aka Audio Soul Project) in 2004. Though it may have flown under the radar upon its initial release, the record has recently gained a cult following, with prices on the secondhand market steadily climbing. A single copy now fetches as much as $170, with a recent test pressing selling for $100. Recognizing the demand, Fresh Meat Records has gone to work offering a beautiful repress of the record—one that truly does justice to the original while adding something special for long-time fans and newcomers alike.

From Chicago With Love Reprise is a celebration of a classic with a new dimension. The record includes a fresh fourth track, “Murmurs Low,” which features the saxophonist Jimmy Tripp and a spoken word performance by Mazi. Together, they add a soulful and atmospheric touch to the original, expanding the sonic palette while retaining the deep, intimate energy of the original release.

The tracklist remains faithful to the original with the standout “Tattoo Of You” leading the way on the A1 side, sounding better than ever thanks to an impeccable re-cut by Lawrie Dunster at Curve Pusher. The deep grooves of “Tattoo Of You” still deliver their deep and mesmerizing house vibes, setting the tone for the rest of the release. In the A2 position, “Murmurs Low” provides a captivating, subdued moment, with the saxophone adding a melodic layer to the evolving rhythm that makes this track truly memorable.

On the B-side, “Down” takes its rightful place as the first track, maintaining a dubby soulful drive and emotional call to action. Closing out the record is “Let Me Know,” a track that brings the journey full circle, providing the perfect outro for the reissue and reminding us why this record is still beloved.

In creating From Chicago With Love Reprise, Mazi Namvar has ensured that every detail is accounted for, from the masterful cutting by Lawrie Dunster to the selection of 8 different color sleeves, offering something for both collectors and music lovers alike. The reissue ensures that this classic can now be enjoyed at a reasonable price, far more accessible than the inflated prices on Discogs. This new pressing is a labor of love, showcasing not only the timelessness of the original tracks but also the care that has gone into its revival.

Whether you’ve been following Mazi Namvar’s work for years or are just discovering this release for the first time, From Chicago With Love Reprise is a powerful reminder of the depth and beauty of house music’s rich history, as well as the enduring passion that drives artists to continue creating for the dancefloor. Get ready to experience this iconic record in a whole new way—one that honors the past while looking forward.

Written, produced, performed, mixed, and arranged by Maziar Namvar.
Additional keys on A1 by Joshua Collins.
Saxophone on A2 by Jimmy Tripp.
Vocals on B1 by Lori Reigler.
Copyright Control
2025 Fresh Meat Records