Suche:sen

In the early 1990s, a team of linguists, engineers, anthropologists, and archaeologists were tasked with constructing a type of communication that could transcend time. How might we converse with future civilizations when language may evolve or dissolve entirely? The result yielded the design of spike fields; a strange construction of granite thorns bursting from the earth to alert its viewers to the deadly uninhabitability of nuclear waste disposal sites. For Maria BC (they/them), this state of temporal focus molds the wanderings on their second full length album Spike Field. How do we connect with the weathered shadow of our experience, while envisioning the self a few steps ahead of us? While their debut album Hyaline (2022, Father/Daughter) explored grief and anxiety through a series of character-led accounts, Spike Field recognizes that the past will continue to lurk below the surface until we decide to break through the soil. Spike Field was recorded in the home of a family friend. The home featured an out-of-tune baby Steinway piano, complete with squeaky hammers and strange, sporadic sounds. The piano is sprinkled throughout the album, and features extensively on opener "Amber," showcasing Maria BC's looser, more extensive arrangements. The song flickers with electronic wonder, like a wave seeking out its station, before crashing into the angelic choral introduction of "Watcher". Strings, plucked guitar and buzzing swells accompany their classically-trained mezzo-soprano voice on "Return to Sender," a song that focuses on the frustrations and turmoil of being unable to reach a loved one--both physically and emotionally. Spike Field reminds us that despite our best efforts to bury certain aspects of ourselves, they will always lurk beneath the surface. Instead of ignoring the seeds striving to break through, we can point to these places with a curious grace, concocting a language that transcends words to converse with our previous selves. Maria BC pieces together juxtaposing sonic landscapes and oscillating vocals to represent the thread of miscommunication, or the failure of words, that weaves throughout the album, transforming it into a distinct and ever-evolving sonic tongue. If we listen, we might find something new within ourselves.

A new compilation explores the far reaches of the post-punk, experimental and electronic landscape in Switzerland on Senza Decoro: Liebe & Anarchia in Switzerland 1980-1990 curated by producer / DJ Mehmet Aslan.

Für sein Album "Night After Night" hat Komponisten-Star James Newton Howard acht neue konzertante Suiten auf Basis der bekanntesten Melodien seiner poetischen Soundtracks aus seinen Filmen mit Regie-Star M. Night Shyamalan geschrieben. Ein All-Star-Ensemble klassischer Solist*Innen hat die so entstandenen neuen Stücke des mit dem Grammy ausgezeichneten Komponisten in den berühmten Londoner Air Studios aufgenommen: Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Geigerin Hilary Hahn, Cellistin Maya Beiser sowie ein Session-Orchester und der Chor "The New Voice" unter der Leitung von Gavin Greenaway. Zur Gestaltung seiner neuen Suiten hat James Newton Howard zentrale Motive und Themen aus seiner Filmmusik zu "The Sixth Sense" (1999), "Unbreakable" (2000), "Signs" (2002), "The Village" (2004), "Lady in the Water" (2006), "The Happening" (2008), "The Last Airbender" (2010) und "After Earth" (2013) verarbeitet. Das Klavier steht dabei immer im Mittelpunkt. Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet ist auf allen Stücken zu hören. Hilary Hahn spielt die Solo-Violine, wie bereits auf dem Originalsoundtrack von 2004, in der Suite zu "The Village". Auch Maya Beiser hat das Cello bereits in der Filmmusik von "The Happening" gespielt und tut dies nun ebenfalls in der gleichnamigen Suite. "Night After Night" feiert die einzigartige Zusammenarbeit zwischen dem berühmten Filmregisseur M. Night Shyamalan und dem Emmy- und Grammy-prämierten sowie neunfach Oscar-nominierten Komponisten James Newton Howard. Eine kreative Partnerschaft, die vor einem Vierteljahrhundert während der Produktion von "The Sixth Sense" begann. M. Night Shyamalan erinnert sich, wie er schon bei der ersten Begegnung das große "Potenzial und die Begeisterung", die aus ihrer Kollaboration erwuchs, spürte. In James Newton Howard fand der Ausnahme-Regisseur einen vertrauensvollen Partner, um die passende musikalische Sprache für seine übernatürlichen Thriller zu entwickeln. "Es gab keinen festen Plan", erinnert sich M. Night Shyamalan, "im Rückblick ist seine Fähigkeit, verschiedene Genres zu verbinden, das Wichtigste. Das interessiert mich. Es gibt den Aspekt des Thrills und des Schreckens in meinen Filmen, aber genauso wichtig ist die Emotionalität. Ein Komponist muss musikalisch sehr vielseitig sein, um all diese Facetten ausdrücken zu können, und einer der wenigen Komponisten, die das können, ist James.""Night ist ein unglaublich positiver Mensch", erklärt James Newton Howard, "er hat mich immer unterstützt, wenn ich verunsichert war oder an meiner Arbeit zweifelte. Das bedeutet mir sehr viel." "Das ist keine Fassade", erwidert M. Night Shyamalan, "es kommt wirklich aus meinem Glauben an dich."

Repress!

Collaboration between French writer Ingrid Astier, actor Pierre Richard and JB Hanak from the band dDamage (Planet Mu, Tsunami-addiction).
JB Hanak is on guitar, bass, synth and rhythmic programming, consumed with a desire to reveal with each changing track a different facet of this imagined nocturnal universe. Ingrid Astier directs the actors as well as the writing of the lyrics, very much as would be found in the cinema.
And then, there is Pierre Richard. At one moment a dreamer, the next a cowboy, suddenly Mafioso and then a nocturnal animal. Thinker, lover, philosopher, astronaut or sandman. Pierre Richard is an actor, an actor of immense presence confined too often to comic roles. “Nuit Jour” offers him roles he has not had in the movies ... And it is breath-taking, both in its register and in a sense of deep renewal.

Kalipo prepares to launch his new album Happy Little Accidents, which counts with twelve electro-focused tracks as well as the participation of feature artists Rampue, Ira Atari, Oberst & Buchner and subkutan. Iconic 80s painter and TV host, Bob Ross is celebrated for his thirty-minute landscapes, recognizably soothing voice as well as the 'happy little quotes' he imprinted on pop culture. One of Ross' most memorable turns of phrase, "We don't make mistakes; we just have happy accidents," went on to encourage thousands worldwide. And not just painters. "For me, this album was about letting the songs develop very quickly and not evaluating them too much, or trying to avoid mistakes," says German electronic music producer, Kalipo (Jakob Häglsperger) who named his latest release Happy Little Accidents after Ross' signature phrase. "Bob Ross really impressed me as a child, he was always so accessible to everyone and demonstrated how easy it was for anyone to work creatively," says Kalipo, who translated Ross' fast and instinctive wet-on-wet painting technique to music-making on Happy Little Accidents. The 12 tracks that make up PART I and PART II of the album are a celebration of the method - sometimes it's a floaty journey with tinkering sounds, at other times dark fast beats create the core of the music, but there's always a sense of intuition and heart driving Kalipo's productions.

The first release from Microtonal Records, Residents of Aotearoa: Microtonal Showcase (ROAMS) EP, presents producers currently living in New Zealand and their interpretation of a warm, atmospheric and dark sound with a groove that provokes movement and thought.

Track A1: Astral Aura by Seb Selknam
A pure analog production from Seb Selknam - Astral Aura provides an instant groove from a warm bassline that sits in pure harmony with the kick to give structure to the melodic and atmospheric landscape you are led into. Minimal crisp percussion and echoing vocals add a familiar and human element to the journey as you slowly float through vista's unknown and aura's unseen. This is 08:22 of pure bliss.

Track A2: Bosun by HRZNTL
The last beat drops, the party ends, the taxi awaits. Bosun by HRZNTL is a reflective piece, the transition from pure adrenaline and the buzz of the rave into a lasting memory of a night spent with family and friends dancing at a castle in the hills of Barcelona. The track itself is built around a detuned dubby key which represents the emotions of ending an epic night, it is surrounded by dark and haunting stabs to add to the atmosphere and a bubbling synth which brings an optimistic reality that it's only day one at Sonar.

Track B1: Admiral Frick by Harvo x Patella
The first ever demo sent to Microtonal HQ, Admiral Frick by Harvo and Patella is pure energy. Taking elements of tribal percussion and combining it with acidic stabs, it is balanced perfectly with a wandering atmospheric pad. There are subtle shifts between four four and breakbeat, as it builds with syncopated snares and a beautiful unrecognisable monotonous vocal calling you deeper into mysteries of the jungle at night. Calmness descends to create space for a powerful sweeping drone like bass that drops you back into a hypnotic state of being. Your relationship with this track will be like an addiction, constantly seeking a hit.

Track B2: Introspection by Felipe Martinez
The epitome of a Microtonal Records track; warm, atmospheric, dark and with a groove. Introspection by Felipe Martinez is a microbreaks track that draws you in with a wide pulsating low end and irregular percussive stabs that float from left to right at the high end. A soft acid synth builds and explodes like a solar flare creating an outer planetary experience. The beautifully crafted breakdown gives you time to pause, observe and contemplate, creating space to process your mental state and explore your emotions from the past, present and future. Introspection; 10 minutes of self healing.

Der vielschichtige schottische Künstler und Musiker Barry Can’t Swim veröffentlicht sein Debütalbum, „When Will We Land?“, auf Ninja Tune. Das elf Tracks lange Album, bewegt sich von Deep House bis Jazz, von Ambience bis zur perkussiven Ladung Afrobeat und ist sein bisher umfassendstes und vielfältigstes Projekt. Alles wird durch seinen einzigartigen Sinn für Zielstrebigkeit und die typische Lebhaftigkeit zusammengehalten; mit seiner geschickten Finesse ist es ein Album, das als eine Art musikalische Autobiografie fungiert.

Der in Edinburgh geborene Musiker erregte 2020 mit einer Reihe von Veröffentlichungen Aufmerksamkeit, bevor er beim Ninja-Tune-Label Technicolor für seine sensationelle EP „More Content“ aus dem Jahr 2022 unterschrieb. Billboard ernannte ihn zu einem ihrer „10 Dance Artists To Watch“, während die Single „Blackpool Boulevard“ auf der Playlist von BBC Radio 1 landete – der Radio-Legende Pete Tong war begeistert, während Tastemaker:innen wie The Blessed Madonna und Annie Mac große Fans wurden. „Man kann sein Debütalbum nur einmal machen.“, betont Barry Can’t Swim. „Deshalb möchte ich alle Elemente der Dinge präsentieren, die mir bis jetzt an der Musik Spaß machen.

This October Melbourne/Naarm synth-punk five-piece screensaver return with ‘Decent Shapes’, their second album. ‘Decent Shapes’ is loaded with bubbling tension, a low grade but growing fever, a rising rage. The frustration is so tangible you can taste it. Detachment and dissociation become survivalist coping mechanisms.


Thematically, screensaver's latest offering finds them exploring existence on an ever-growing trash heap where we’re desperate for the new, the nice and the shiny. A world where materialism reigns supreme and corporate niceties litter the public dialogue but behind closed doors the sentiment is warlike, total domination is the only answer to the bottom line. All of which is underpinned by the band's sonic sense of urgency and a commitment to creating a sound that taps into the mood and spirit of post-punk whilst also allowing space for new wave elements and electronic experiments to shine through.
‘Decent Shapes’ was recorded and mixed by Julian Cue, who was also the recording engineer for Expressions of Interest. Defined by a kinetic energy, dynamic range and brooding atmosphere, the 10-track release comprises some tracks that were mainstays within the band's live shows - featuring in their US tour set-list - alongside others which were written later in the recording process. During the creation of ‘Decent Shapes’, the band also experimented with swapping instruments, allowing for different playing styles and song-writing approaches.


screensaver was formed in 2016 as a trans-Pacific project between Krystal Maynard (Bad Vision/ex Polo) and Christopher Stephenson (Spray Paint/Exek). Their debut album Expressions of Interest received support from the likes of Brooklyn Vegan, Beats Per Minute, DIY and Post-Trash and last September the band played a 12-date tour across the US.

John Heaven of "Mainline Magic Orchestra" fame delivers Hot 48° degrees celsius, sweat dripping —>
s**, all in one minimal house record. Mover!

Zwischen Indie, Post-Punk und -Hardcore verarbeiten die fünf Musiker Persönliches bis Persönlichstes mit einer Ehrlichkeit, die sich oft wie eine kalte Dusche anfühlt. Dass sich die Musik Jeannys auf Cecilia trotz kompromisslosem Sound und schonungslosen Texten dennoch nie in Aggressivität auflöst ist vor allem ihrem sensiblen Songwriting und der Trompete geschuldet, die den sanften Gegenpol zu rifflastigem Gittarenspiel und Sprech- bis Schreigesang bildet.

A1 - Theia

Opening his Spatial account in an historic release for the label and a moniker dormant for over 25 years, JLM Productions opens the EP with Theia - a track which will take you right back to early Progression Sessions days - delicately introduced with blippy effects and hi hats, ushering in crisp metallic beats and relaxing padwork. The track develops continually with soothing melodies and amens added into the mix, resulting in a stunning and varied collage of finely tuned elements that never sound too busy to the ear - JLM Productions, welcome back!

A2 - Derealization

Changing things up while still showcasing the ability to combine a crazy level of detail into a cohesive mix, Derealization is a suspenseful, slightly moody track with JLM Productions laying down distinctive snappy breakbeats and sudden, fierce bassy hits, with tension rising from the eerie synthwork to envelop the listener throughout a track which demands repeated listens and will surely do damage on the discerning dancefloor.

AA1 - Quadrature

With a vibe reminiscent of his output in the mid-90's Reinforced era, JLM Productions drops Quadrature which takes that inspiration and brings it right up to date for Spatial in 2023, effortlessly combining synthetic breaks with understated echoing bongos, restless wavy notes and old school melodies punctuating the immersive atmosphere of the piece. This one thoroughly deserves pride of place in the "old school brand new" club.

AA2 - Translight Velocity

Continuing the old school theme, Translight Velocity quickly shows it's intent with inspired off-key notes before a lesson in joyous 90's style breakbeats leaps out of the speakers - not a single head in the room will be still with this on deck! Bouncy basslines and finely crafted drums from a variety of break samples jump around chaotically, sending your mind to the dancefloors of old in a way that feels incredibly fresh today

Words by Chris Hayes

We're proud to announce renewal of our near-ten year relationship with raw black power ambient ritualists Sutekh Hexen in announcing the band's colossal new 2LP "P:R:I:S:M", a full collaboration with Canadian nightmare-weaving enigma Funerary Call (AKA field recording and experimental soundscaping artist Harlow MacFarlane), to be released this summer in collaboration with our good dearest frequent co-conspirators from the US Sentien Ruin.
With "P:R:I:S:M", magisterial sonic-alchemists Sutekh Hexen and Funerary Call join forces to deliver a fully collaborative album of eight highly experimental tracks. Throughout this octonary journey, concepts and unseen source energies are refined into spectrums of deeper consciousness. The resulting narrative guides the listener through a vastness of (dis)charging energies, rebirth through dissolution, and harrowing harmonic passages in tremendous spaces. Inner-workings suspend transformations in time. Pushing their respective boundaries, Sutekh Hexen and Funerary Call initiate the listener with the crystalline, static miasma of the album’s opener 'Meridian غ', only to enshroud them in the manifesting psychosis of 'Infernal Folly'. The churning mysticism of 'Perilous Shade' offers temporal sanctuary, and 'Toward the Eastern Gate' calls forth tectonic-prophecies as the album's centerpiece, tipping the scale into 'Fractal: Void'—a blistering disarmament in a storm of guitars, scathing electronics, and the disembodied calls we all anticipate and fear. 'Æscend Obsidia' tests the preceding tension and overwhelms in shimmering radiance before declaring release in 'Pangæa Ultima² (Dread)'. Closing with 'Shores of Purgatory', thresholds are breached anew with hectic guitar feedback, spectral synthesis and meditative melodic embellishments. Where the mirror blinds, the "P:R:I:S:M" offers vision—refractions of new perspectives, dissolving the shadow-self.

After collaborating together for more than a decade, Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden released their first album under the Lost Girls moniker in 2021: Menneskekollektivet. The record received rave reviews, including a Best New Music mark at Pitchfork. On October 20th, 2023, the duo will release their second album Selvutsletter.


Like its predecessor, the album title is a made up Norwegian word, a word that almost exists. The band’s own translation of Selvutsletter is «self-effacer»: Someone who tries to erase themselves. Someone who is cleaning out themselves. Performing exorcism. Or perhaps just getting older, less interested in their own present self.


In 2022, Lost Girls were booked to perform a concert at Les Subsistances in Lyon, together with a few Norwegian performing arts groups performing their pieces. The band decided to use the opportunity to create all new material, and think of it as a coherent piece. Working in tandem, with Volden creating beats and wild sets of guitar chords and Hval restructuring the parts, creating melodies, words and adding more sounds, they started spiraling into unchartered territory of shorter, more concise and melodic songs than their debut LP Menneskekollektivet.


As the material developed, words already embedded in the chords, guitar sounds and rhythms began to dance around. Lyrics about cities after dark, music rituals and band practices of the 90s, and the early days of the internet began to take shape. These were Hval's own memories of her hometown and her obsession with creating music as a way of leaving it behind or even setting it on fire. Selvutsletter is, in that sense, about retracing Hval and Volden's steps back to how it felt to discover music, the intensely physical and communal experience of creating something. Certain tracks even go back further, to discover possible happenings in Norwegian towns and cities before any of us were born, using elements of faux folk singing.


Where Menneskekollektivet was about exploring club beats, and expanding and trying out structures, Selvutsletter is about disappearing in experiences. It combines the intuitive, late night feel of Lost Girls’ previous work with experimental rock music as its object. The result is more adventurous than nostalgic: A fiery, bilingual whirl of colors, words, vegetation and electricity.

SAVED! is an apocalyptic revelation on the complex, sometimes ugly, always nonlinear process of healing. Herein, Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter documents an earnest attempt to achieve salvation through the tenets of charismatic Christianity, focusing on the Pentecostal-Holiness Movement, which dictate that one's closeness to God is demonstrated through transcendental personal experience. Sonically and thematically, the record is both a logical conclusion to and a significant departure from Hayter's previous work as Lingua Ignota. Mirroring her personal evolution away from pain, she sheds the moniker that made her successful for its unflinching expression of lived trauma and instead builds herself anew, claiming her full given name, determined to see value within. Musically, while she continues to use historical avant-garde technique and formal constraints superimposed over accessible frameworks, she also strips down her instrumentation and degrades audio to provide a sense of musicological antiquity. Similar to Lingua Ignota, the record is steeped in pathos, but now the wrath of God gives way to His deliverance: "His boundless love shall make you whole."

SAVED! is an apocalyptic revelation on the complex, sometimes ugly, always nonlinear process of healing. Herein, Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter documents an earnest attempt to achieve salvation through the tenets of charismatic Christianity, focusing on the Pentecostal-Holiness Movement, which dictate that one's closeness to God is demonstrated through transcendental personal experience. Sonically and thematically, the record is both a logical conclusion to and a significant departure from Hayter's previous work as Lingua Ignota. Mirroring her personal evolution away from pain, she sheds the moniker that made her successful for its unflinching expression of lived trauma and instead builds herself anew, claiming her full given name, determined to see value within. Musically, while she continues to use historical avant-garde technique and formal constraints superimposed over accessible frameworks, she also strips down her instrumentation and degrades audio to provide a sense of musicological antiquity. Similar to Lingua Ignota, the record is steeped in pathos, but now the wrath of God gives way to His deliverance: "His boundless love shall make you whole."

'Scapegoat' is the new album by TRIOLA, the project led by the prolific Tokyo-based composer & experimental string musician Atsuko Hatano, featuring the Japanese violinist Anzu Suhara.

Conceived as a strings project, with Hatano on viola and Suhara on violin, TRIOLA involves a rotating ensemble of guest musicians, including the likes of Chicago-born musician, composer & producer Jim O'Rourke (Drag City, Sonic Youth, Steamroom), the composer & musician Eiko Ishibashi (Drag City, Black Truffle), Australian composer Joe Talia (Touch, Room40, Feeding Tube Records), Yamaguchi-born drummer Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (releases on Black Truffle, Longform Editions, SUPERPANG, performances with Keiji Haino, Oren Ambarchi & Phew +++), Sendai-based vocalist & musician Koji Shibuya (Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Yumbo) & many more.

New Music Fix BBC Radio 6 8th August.

It's all aboard for Stasis' second 12" on De:tuned. Steve Pickton is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the early UK techno scene. Here he returns with a new 3 track EP of carefully selected and previously unreleased DAT tape tracks from the heyday of 90s electronic music. On offer a uniquely lush and sentimental style that resonates with the 313 Motor City sound. Sweet memories are the greatest kind of nostalgia!

Kevin Foakes (Openmind, DJ Food, Ninja Tune) created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis and pressed on 180 gr vinyl. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops. Stay tuned!

Nachfolger des von der Kritik gefeierten, selbstbetitelten Debütalbum, Vambo mit ihrem 2. Studioalbum. Zwölf Tracks dienen als Schaufenster für das beeindruckende musikalische Talent und die energiegeladenen Auftritte der Band. Die Songs bieten eine Mischung aus melodischen Refrains, knallharten Riffs und dynamischen Gitarrensoli und versprechen ein aufregendes Hörerlebnis. Das Album lässt sich sowohl von "klassischen" Rock-Sensibilitäten als auch von zeitgenössischen Einflüssen inspirieren und präsentiert eine frische und innovative Herangehensweise an das Genre. Produziert von Ray Stiles, ehemaliges Mitglied der 70er-Jahre-Glam-Rocker Mud und langjähriges Mitglied von The Hollies. Jack Stiles Gesang, mit seiner fesselnden Präsenz und kraftvollen Stimme, ist eine magnetische Kraft, an der Gitarre entfesselt Pete Lance eine donnernde Energie, die die Aufmerksamkeit des Publikums vom ersten Powerchord an auf sich zieht, David Flitt, ein dynamischer Schlagzeuger, der die treibende Kraft hinter Vambo ist, der Kraft und Subtilität verbindet. Schließlich noch James Scotts provokante Basslinien verleihen Vambos Musik Tiefe und Kraft. Wie in der "High Hopes"-Strecke des Classic Rock Magazine zu sehen ist, haben sich Vambo als aufstrebende Kraft in der Rockszene etabliert, die nicht zu übersehen ist. Als Live Band ausgiebig auf großen Festivals unterwegs, z.B. das Download Festival, das Isle of Wight Festival und das Stone Free Festival und als Support für Acts wie Jared James Nichols, Y&T, Praying Mantis, Stray und Cats in Space.

Mit "Nectar Of The Gods" heben The Spacelords ihren unverwechselbaren Sound in neue, astrale Höhen. The Spacelords - die galaktisch groovenden Spacerocker im Stoner Raum-Zeit Kontinuum - beehren unser Sonnen-Soundsystem mit ihrem neuesten Album. "Nectar Of The Gods" ist das 6. Studioalbum auf dem Tonzonen Records Label der 2008 gegründeten Ausnahmeformation, die seit Mai 2014 in der perfekten Besetzung eine stets wachsende Fangemeinde weltweit begeistert. Nach überschwänglichen Reaktionen auf die bisherigen Studioalben schlagen die Spacelords ein weiteres, unerhörtes Kapitel in ihrem originellen, magischen All-Atlas auf. Das sich stets neu erfindende, tief ineinander verwobene Zusammenspiel des Trios, zieht mit seiner hingebungsvollen Spielfreude, wie sie nur echte Freunde aufzubringen vermögen, die Stoner,- Space- und Kraut- Rock - Gemeinde in ihren Bann. Bei einem der vier epischem neuen Tracks hat die gigantische Anziehungskraft des massereichen Spacelords Sterns erneut einen sympathischen Sendboten aus dem benachbarten Tastenuniversum angezogen: "Lost Sound of Lemuria" wird vom befreundeten Guest Lord Jens Eberhard (Jewelled Moon) mit fulminanten Fender Rhodes- und Organ-Sounds veredelt. So entstanden im heimischen Studio vier beeindruckende neue Songs, die mit hohem Wiedererkennungswert, als auch atmosphärisch zu überzeugen wissen.

Sampha kündigt mit "LAHAI" sein mit Spannung erwartetes zweites Album an, das am 20. Oktober auf Young erscheint. Nach dem Namen seines Großvaters väterlicherseits benannt, der gleichzeitig auch Samphas zweiter Vorname ist, fließt die Musik auf "LAHAI" zwischen der Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben und der Magie der weltlichen Existenz und beschreibt das Chaos, das man erlebt, wenn man sich dem Kreislauf des Lebens und dem Jenseits stellt. Auf den 14 Tracks hat Sampha enge Freunde und Kollegen zusammengerufen - darunter fantastische Künstler wie Yaeji, Léa Sen, Sheila Maurice Grey (Kokoroko), Ibeyi, Morgan Simpson (Black Midi), Yussef Dayes, Laura Groves und Kwake Bass. Im Gegensatz zum Vorgänger "Process" ist "LAHAI" ein eher kollaboratives Album. Die neueste Single "Only", die von einem Musikvideo von Dexter Navy in Zusammenarbeit mit Sampha begleitet wird und auf dem Vorab Track "Spirit 2.0" folgt, zeigt einen extrem lebendigen Sampha, der melodisch über einen fragmentierten Hip-Hop-Beat mit Co-Produktion von spanischen Musiker El Guincho singt. Im Juni kehrte Sampha zum ersten Mal seit fünf Jahren für seine Satellite Business Residencies in London und New York auf die Bühne zurück. Das einzigartige Setup, bei dem Sampha und seine Band in der Mitte des Raums auftraten, ermöglichte den Fans einen intimen Zugang zu der improvisierten Performance neuer, unveröffentlichter Musik und alternativer Arrangements von Samphas Katalog, die das Publikum "wie gebannt" (Pitchfork) zurückließ. In diesem Herbst wird Sampha eine größere Version der Satellite Business Live-Show auf Tournee mitnehmen. Den Anfang machen mehrere Abende in London in der St. Johns at Hackney Church im Oktober, bevor er nach Nordamerika zurückkehrt, um in großen Städten aufzutreten: Los Angeles, Toronto, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Philadelphia und Atlanta. Anfang Dezember kehrt er nach Europa zurück und spielt in Berlin, Amsterdam und Paris. Wie sein Schöpfer lässt sich auch "LAHAI" nicht in eine Schublade stecken. Das neue Album ist eine Mischung aus Jazz, Soul, Rap, Dance, Jungle und westafrikanischer Musik, mit der Sampha seine produktionstechnischen und stimmlichen Ambitionen auf ein neues Niveau hebt. Als begnadeter Sänger , Songwriter und Produzent ist es kein Wunder, dass Künstler wie Kendrick Lamar, Stormzy, Travis Scott und früher auch Drake, Solange, Frank Ocean, Beyoncé, Lil Wayne und Alicia Keys ihn für seine unnachahmliche Stimme sowie seine Beiträge zum Songwriting und zur Produktion ihrer Musik um Unterstützung baten. Zu seinen früheren kreativen Partnerschaften gehören die Modedesignerin Grace Wales Bonner, das Shy Light Zine mit Durimel (der auch das LAHAI-Artwork gedreht hat), sein Process-Film mit dem Regisseur Kahlil Joseph und kürzlich die Zusammenarbeit mit Jonny Lu, mit dem Sampha das Artwork für sein LAHAI-Album und sein neues Logo entwickelt hat. Wenn "Process", Samphas 2017 mit dem Mercury-Preis ausgezeichnetes Debütalbum, einen Künstler zeigte, der seinen eigenen Platz in der Welt suchte und schließlich auch fand, ist "LAHAI" eine Übung in der radikalen Akzeptanz und Freude am Leben und der Schönheit der Reise bis hierhin. Willkommen zu Samphas nächstem musikalischen Kapitel: LAHAI.