quête:solstice

Formerly one third of the much-loved trio Black Box Recorder, alongside The Auteurs’ Luke Haines and Jesus and Mary Chain guitarist John Moore, the British singer-songwriter Sarah Nixey has steadily gained acclaim as a solo artist who makes savvy, sophisticated and poised pop.

Delivering vocals with a detached elegance over opulent tracks, any perceived nonchalance in Nixey’s luxe, cut glass voice belies her empathy, where social commentary serves as protest, both explicit and implied. Like Billy Bragg deepfaked as prime Julie Andrews, this strange but effective juxtaposition radiates soft power. ‘Lies of the Land’ depicts a corrupt post-Brexit and Covid-19 world where inequality and division flourish. ‘England's On Fire’ delves into the nuanced concepts of patriotism and nationalism, and ‘Pleasure Bay’ narrates the story of a love affair with a deprived yet beautiful English seaside town, written after Nixey left London, drawn back to the Dorset coast.
More than just a political record though, Nixey was drawn to the poetic elements of living too, telling stories of life and death, love and loss, conflicts and symmetry, in an intimate and close-up way, as if whispering secrets to her listeners.

“Sea Fever explores the bittersweet beauty of human life amid a volatile world of changing seasons and brutal elements,” says Nixey. “These are songs of deep sorrow, remembrance, birth, and change, set against a backdrop of the sensuous natural world.”
‘Rolling Waves’ explores profound grief following her beloved grandmother's death, while ‘Spring Equinox’ celebrates the joy and awe of life after welcoming her first grandchild. ‘At the Edge of the Forest’ is a poignant story of someone losing their memory, and ‘On This Wide Night’ recounts the early hours return home of a teenage runaway.

Everything Is Recorded, ist das musikalische Kollaborationsprojekt von XL-Recordings Chef Richard Russell. Auf dem Album "Temporary" sind zu hören u.a. Sampha, Bill Callahan, Noah Cyrus, Florence Welch, Maddy Prior, Berwyn, Alabaster Deplume, Jah Wobble, Yazz Ahmed, Laura Groves, Kamasi Washington, Ricky Washington, Roses Gabor, Jack Penate, Samantha Morton, Clari Freeman-Taylor und Nourished By Time. "Temporary" entstand im Verlauf von vier Jahren in Russells Londoner Copper House Studio und während einiger zusätzlicher Sessions in Tottenham, Cumbria, Dorset, Los Angeles und Las Vegas Es schließt an die vorangegangenen Releases wie das 2018 für den Mercury Prize nominierte Debüt an. Auf dem neuen Album erfährt Russells musikalische DNA allerdings ein Reboot: Sein Cut & Paste Approach reicht in die Zeit vor Sampling-Helden wie The Bomb Squad und Prince Paul zurück bis hin zu Innovatoren wie Steve Reich, Robert Rauschenberg und William S. Burroughs. Während Russells Musik bislang geprägt war von Rhythmus, Worten und Melodie - in ebendieser Reihenfolge - tauschen zwei Aspekte diesmal ihre Rollen. Der Rhythmus tritt zugunsten der Melodie in den Hintergrund. Musikalisch ist "Temporary" vom Gedankenexperiment "what if folk music had "gone digital" in the 80s, just as reggae had?" geleitet, während sich in spiritueller und lyrischer Hinsicht vieles um Trauer und den Verlust von Freunden, Familienmitgliedern und Kollegen dreht. Im Ergebnis stehen leuchtende und gelassene Kompositionen, auch dank der faszinierenden und vielfältigen Gästeliste, die "Temporary" mitbringt. Die fragilen, zärtlichen und stillen Tracks liefern vielleicht eines der sanftesten Alben, die je über den Tod geschrieben wurden. "Das Album zu machen, war erfüllend, eine Art, das Leben zu heiligen", so Russell. "Temporary" ist die erste reguläre Veröffentlichung von Everything Is Recorded nach über vier Jahren. In der Zwischenzeit war Russell allerdings nicht untätig. Via Soundcloud und Bandcamp erschienen zuletzt "Summer Solstice", "Autumn Equinox", "Winter Solstice" und "Spring Equinox", die alle mit einer Reihe von Gastmusikerinnen und -.musikern im Rahmen ausgiebiger Jams an jeweils nur einem Tag entstanden. Mit der Schauspielerin und Regisseurin Samantha Morton tat er sich zum Duo Sam Morton zusammen, welches sein Debüt "Daffodils und Dirt" veröffentlichte. Für Peter Gabriels Comeback-Album "i/o" produzierte Russell den Song "Four Kinds of Horses".

Featuring the otherworldly vocals of the legendary jazz singer Norma Winstone whose vocals were recently sampled in Drake's 2023 chart topping single IDGAF (feat. Yeat) and Leo Taylor (Floating Points, Hot Chip, Joy Crookes) on drums, the EP is the amalgamation of Barrott's long term fascination with sunset music, and the ways the change of seasons impact the way we co-exist with the sun. As winter draws closer and we move on from the Autumn equinox to Winter solstice, Barrott's latest release captures the transformative yet paradoxical feeling of melancholy over the end of Summer and the start of winter while creating an eerie sensation of serenity.

The EP follows from the release of Barrott's critically acclaimed and deeply personal 2024 album Everything Changes, Nothing Ends.

The new EP sees Barrott return to his beloved sunset music, as he continues his eternal quest to find new ways to soundtrack this sacred Ibiza moment.



Crowned as the"master of sunset music"by Pitchfork, Barrott's new EP is filled with celestial grandeur that stops you in your tracks. A profound musical meditation and an homage to the sunsets of the Autumn months, the EP captures the sonic poetry of the changing skies and the seasons.

The haunting combination of Barrott's production & arrangement skills, Taylor's jazz drums and Winstone's endlessly ethereal vocals soar in a harmonious union across the title track of the EP while the openerI Am The Starssummons you in for a brief respite from the cacophony of the modern world. The wistful second trackMy Blue Heartlingers with you with its melancholic jazz horns swelling side by side with Winstone's vocals while the closing trackI Am The Airfloats through your ears with its sublime contemplativeness. I Am The Sun, You Are The Moonsees Barrott returning to his sonic ruminations on sunsets, however they are more profound and life affirming than ever.



"At the end of the summer, on a clear bright starry night I climbed to the top of a mountain in Ibiza with a pair of headphones and listened to these tracks and lost myself in the vastness of the night sky and the endlessness of Norma's voice. At that moment everything made sense in my world for the first time in a long while and it just felt right",Mark Barrott says.

"I was surprised and delighted to be asked to participate in this very musical project and to be given such a free hand. Trying to integrate the voice into what were already beautifully formed pieces was creatively very interesting", Norma Winstone says

Zak Starkey had a concept. He ran it by Shaun Ryder (Happy Mondays); a super group based around Shaun's beat poetry and the sprawling peacock universe of Andy Bell's (Ride/Oasis) other-worldly guitar-scapes and the mind-bending, time-stretching, hypnotic insurrection of Bez's (Happy Mondays) maracas. Add to this one fifth dimension Noel Gallagher (Oasis/High Flying Birds), and Domino Bones full version became deeply etched into the gravity-laden grooves of this loudest of transparent top tunes. Travellers in the cosmos or indeed the third moon of the second seven solstices on a realisation it is, and was our, home. Special edition transparent vinyl 7" single.

Everything Is Recorded, ist das musikalische Kollaborationsprojekt von XL-Recordings Chef Richard Russell. Auf dem Album "Temporary" sind zu hören u.a. Sampha, Bill Callahan, Noah Cyrus, Florence Welch, Maddy Prior, Berwyn, Alabaster Deplume, Jah Wobble, Yazz Ahmed, Laura Groves, Kamasi Washington, Ricky Washington, Roses Gabor, Jack Penate, Samantha Morton, Clari Freeman-Taylor und Nourished By Time. "Temporary" entstand im Verlauf von vier Jahren in Russells Londoner Copper House Studio und während einiger zusätzlicher Sessions in Tottenham, Cumbria, Dorset, Los Angeles und Las Vegas Es schließt an die vorangegangenen Releases wie das 2018 für den Mercury Prize nominierte Debüt an. Auf dem neuen Album erfährt Russells musikalische DNA allerdings ein Reboot: Sein Cut & Paste Approach reicht in die Zeit vor Sampling-Helden wie The Bomb Squad und Prince Paul zurück bis hin zu Innovatoren wie Steve Reich, Robert Rauschenberg und William S. Burroughs. Während Russells Musik bislang geprägt war von Rhythmus, Worten und Melodie - in ebendieser Reihenfolge - tauschen zwei Aspekte diesmal ihre Rollen. Der Rhythmus tritt zugunsten der Melodie in den Hintergrund. Musikalisch ist "Temporary" vom Gedankenexperiment "what if folk music had "gone digital" in the 80s, just as reggae had?" geleitet, während sich in spiritueller und lyrischer Hinsicht vieles um Trauer und den Verlust von Freunden, Familienmitgliedern und Kollegen dreht. Im Ergebnis stehen leuchtende und gelassene Kompositionen, auch dank der faszinierenden und vielfältigen Gästeliste, die "Temporary" mitbringt. Die fragilen, zärtlichen und stillen Tracks liefern vielleicht eines der sanftesten Alben, die je über den Tod geschrieben wurden. "Das Album zu machen, war erfüllend, eine Art, das Leben zu heiligen", so Russell. "Temporary" ist die erste reguläre Veröffentlichung von Everything Is Recorded nach über vier Jahren. In der Zwischenzeit war Russell allerdings nicht untätig. Via Soundcloud und Bandcamp erschienen zuletzt "Summer Solstice", "Autumn Equinox", "Winter Solstice" und "Spring Equinox", die alle mit einer Reihe von Gastmusikerinnen und -.musikern im Rahmen ausgiebiger Jams an jeweils nur einem Tag entstanden. Mit der Schauspielerin und Regisseurin Samantha Morton tat er sich zum Duo Sam Morton zusammen, welches sein Debüt "Daffodils und Dirt" veröffentlichte. Für Peter Gabriels Comeback-Album "i/o" produzierte Russell den Song "Four Kinds of Horses".

Itara is the debut solo album by Paul Pèrrim—guitarist, composer, and anthropologist—featuring a set of guitar-driven compositions that blend hallucinatory acid folk, abstract blues, mutant Eastern jazz, surreal ambient, and free improvi-sation into a vivid and distinctive sonic tapestry.
With a background in ethnomusicology and a degree in Music Education, Pèrrim’s work bridges popular and experi-mental music. He contrasts the acoustic guitar’s austerity with the expansive possibilities of the electric guitar, drawing from late ’60s folk traditions, contemporary fingerstyle, sound collage, drone, psychedelia, and improvisation.
A key figure in the Canary Islands’ experimental scene, he released two albums in the 2010s under The Transistor Arkestra, a Catalan collective merging free jazz and psychedelia. As Transistor Eye, his solo project, he merges ana-log electronics with guitar, using vintage synths and effects.
In 2022, Pèrrim gained wider recognition through his appearance on Manos Ocultas (Philatelia Records) and the in-ternational tribute Solstice: A Tribute to Steffen Basho-Junghans (Obsolete Recordings). That same year, he founded GUITARRACO, a contemporary guitar festival in Tarragona, where he has shared the stage with Joseba Irazoki, Buck Curran, and Raphael Roginski.
Itara will be released in July 2025 via Keroxen. Recorded and produced by Pèrrim, the album features liner notes by critic Bill Meyer, who writes:
“While it’s common to call music cinematic these days, Pèrrim goes split-screen. One might say he composes econo, jamming scenes and sounds to psychedelic effect. But economy does not equate with poverty. Pèrrim draws upon a rich bank of musical notions, all of which he makes his own through the alchemy of recombination and transmutation.”

Glasgow-based Effective Dreaming—the solo project of Scottish artist and musician Iain Ross—unveils Dream Catalogue Vol. 1, arriving June 21st, 2025 (Summer Solstice) via Swedish experimental label Fluere Tapes.

Issued as a limited run of 50 cassettes, each adorned with hand-worked, corroded copper sheet inserts and labels, Dream Catalogue Vol. 1 feels less like a release and more like an unearthed artefact: weathered, humming, quietly alive. The materials echo the music’s exploration of fragile impermanence and erosion: oxidised metal, magnetic tape, hiss, hum. A tactile world where sound wears its decay like a patina.

Across its length, the album unfolds in a series of flickering vignettes—drifting, dissolving, reappearing. Shaped by synths, environmental recordings, tape loops, and soft drones, the pieces move like glints of light on water—never fixed, always in motion. Achingly beautiful melodies rise and vanish, tracing fragile pathways through a landscape of shifting sensations. Some moments glow with a gentle warmth, like sunlit glass or breath on a fogged mirror. Others slip into shadow: slow, submerged passages feel closer to memory than music. The album feels loose and weightless, yet dense with feeling—a presence more sensed than held.

There is no fixed narrative here—only fragments and artefacts, half-remembered places, echoes of dreams. Each track hovers just at the edge of clarity, evoking not specific stories, but moods, textures, and the quiet drift of time. It’s music that feels both intimate and remote, like overhearing a distant signal only you can understand.

The name Effective Dreaming is drawn from Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, where a dreamer's visions alter the very fabric of reality—past and present reshaped, histories rewritten, unnoticed by all but the dreamer himself. In a similar spirit, Ross’s music inhabits a space where memory, perception, and matter blur—where each sound carries the residue of something once real, now transformed and dissolving as one drifts through the seams of the world.

Dream Catalogue Vol. 1 is a meditation on texture, transience, and the quiet resonance of what slips away.

For listeners of: Wave Temples, Dolphins Into the Future, Guenther Schlienz"

Audio alchemist Damian Lazarus continues to redefine the boundaries of electronic music with his fifth studio album, ‘Magickal’.

Renowned for his unparalleled ability to craft transformative sonic journeys, Damian Lazarus is a master of rhythm, melody, and vibration—a true pioneer among his generation’s visionary artists. Damian’s broad depth of experience encompasses a variety of disciplines: tastemaker, selector, label owner, A&R and a Grammy-nominated artist in his own right - each informed by his unique ear for sound. He is chief wizard of the hugely influential and culture-defining Crosstown Rebels label, a globally renowned DJ with a penchant for exotic outdoor locations and a highly regarded recording artist with four albums and a plethora of solo cuts, collaborations and remixes in his sprawling discography.

With his fifth album, ‘Magickal’, Damian steps into his next evolutionary phase, combining his newly found sobriety with a more mature outlook while still pushing boundaries and creating unforgettable moments. At the root of it all is the magical power of togetherness and human connection that only music can facilitate. Driven by this core ethos, Damian continues on his mission to share his heartfelt music, taking the dance floor into unexplored realms of experience, facilitating moments of transcendence, bliss and pure, unadulterated magic.

Damian Lazarus, the avant-garde architect of spiritually nourishing sounds, is joined by a stellar lineup of collaborators on his latest excursion. It’s imaginative and mystical, rhythmically captivating and daring in its own way, as is typical of Damian’s approach. Taking consideration of his past, the album references his previous work to create a tapestry of compositions that tap into the energy of key moments from his discography. Drawing on his existing catalogue creates cohesive through lines and thematically serves as a continuation of previous stories. November’s single, ‘Sunrise Generation’, for instance, works as a companion to ‘Vermillion’, which was recorded by Damian with his band The Ancient Moons and vocalist Moses Sumney back in 2015. ‘Sunrise Generation’, featuring the beautiful vocals of Fink, was Damian’s first major release since his Grammy-nominated 2021 collaboration ‘Don’t Be Afraid’ with Diplo and Jungle, and continues to take inspiration from global gatherings at solstice and those moments of collective awe at sunrise.

Indeed, the album’s themes of mental elevation and psychedelic sonic journeys are evident throughout. Damian channels this energy through tracks like the soulful ‘So Low’, featuring the incredible Zoe Kypri, and the luminous ‘Searchin’, with Jem Cooke, whose collaboration with Damian dates back to ‘Flourish’ (2020) and lead single ‘Into The Sun’. Uplifting is the operative word here, as Damian aims straight for our hearts and inner selves, stripping away the layers to take us on a trip inwards, and out into the ether all at once. There’s a clear nod to Damian’s appreciation of amapiano when he teams up with Ghanaian interdisciplinary healer Jojo Abot on ‘Warrior Dance’. Old friend and inspirer Mathew Jonson brings his virtuoso touch to ‘Are You Dreaming?’, while TEED and A-Trak form an awesome alliance for ‘Falling Down’ with its heartrending vocals. ‘Alive’ features the Bloom Twins, and also additional production from acclaimed producer Mark Ralph, who incidentally worked on Damian’s debut album ‘Smoke The Monster Out’ in 2009 and forms another throughline to the past. ‘Alive’ blends pop sensibilities and song structure with Damian’s inimitable sound - and could become one of Damian’s biggest moments to date. ‘La Hija De Juan Simon’ delves into the Latin energy synonymous with vibrancy and self-expression as Damian teams up with acclaimed Spanish flamenco-influenced duo Mëstiza. On a solo tip, he rolls out with the eight-minute-plus soulful funk flex ‘Why Don’t U’.

In a suitably aligned instance of serendipity, the arrival of ‘Magickal’ comes at a pivotal period in Damian’s life, just as it has been with previous album concepts. Albums made and released during big shifts in his life speak to the correlation between growth, personal evolution, creativity, catharsis and sharing that process musically. The last album ‘Flourish’, for instance, was recorded and released in the space of a few months during the first summer of the global pandemic. As a result, there’s a kind of vulnerability in the music, a subtle story that’s being told with emotional touchpoints that will be relevant to anyone listening. The universal human experience and spectrum of emotions are things almost everyone can relate to. With the enhanced clarity of his sobriety, Damian’s compositions embody the uplifting nature of simply being alive, connected and unified in our love for music and one another.

Day Zero, Damian’s iconic annual festival, is intrinsically linked to ‘Magickal’. It’s the setting for his imagination when producing the music, it’s the launchpad for each year’s kaleidoscopic adventures around the world, and this year’s edition will be the backdrop to the release of ‘Magickal’. As the pinnacle of Damian’s annual experiences, Day Zero marks a vital milestone for his artistry, an extension of his inner realm, carefully curated and created for his global family of lovers and dancers to revel in the awe-inspiring beauty of Mother Nature. Central to the ethos of Day Zero is its sustainability practices and deep consideration for the locality within which it is held. Connections with local elders embolden its depth, cultivating a strongly aligned purpose with the ritual, customs and energy of the land and its people.

‘Magickal’ will be released in the same week as Day Zero, tying the two projects together in a neat dovetail. 12 years since it started, Day Zero continues to play a significant role in the music Damian makes, curates and plays. For him, it’s the epitome of his vision: a stunning natural setting, the very best party people from around the world, an unparalleled lineup of friends and family, high production values, eco-centric policies and music from another dimension. With these interdimensional transmissions, Damian channels his inner alchemist, which, in turn, permeates into the vibrational framework of ‘Magickal’.

Never one to adhere to convention, Damian has opted for a disruptive album release. ‘Magickal’ is to be kept under wraps and then announced and released on Crosstown Rebels on 8th January 2025, bypassing the modern trend of prolonged single drops and ‘tombstone’ album releases. ‘Magickal’ is the embodiment of Damian and his intentional, against-the-grain approach and reinforces the album as a complete artistic statement, offering listeners the full cohesive experience from the very beginning. This is a return to the album as the pinnacle moment and not the afterthought. Singles, edits and remixes will follow the ‘Magickal album’ release, and, of course, there will be a world tour to promote the album (including Glastonbury and Coachella) and a chance to present the album in exciting, innovative and unique ways.

Forever dreaming, a sincere student of magic, new and old, social sorcerer, lover of nature and master of musical wizardry, Damian Lazarus is a potent force. With ‘Magickal’, he reaffirms his place as one of electronic music’s most influential figures, taking listeners on a profound journey into sound, spirit, and connection.

"You Are Stronger Than You Think" belegt eine Intensivierung und Reife des Bradford-Sounds und ihrer Präsenz. Starke Themen tauchen in gefühlvoller Musik auf und sorgen für ein reichhaltiges und lohnendes Hörerlebnis. Es ist das vierte Album der britischen Indie-Pop-Band aus Blackburn, Lancashire.

We're told that inspiration for this bumper new double album of super fresh techno from the young New Palm label came in 2023 when the artists met up on the LA River armed with "a couple of generators, a Klipsch system, turntables, and a modular rig, for a day into night of music centred around various forms of dub." The results are superb, with Charles Edward opening up with the sparse, laid-back dub of 'Bogus August', Lena Deen keeping it deft with the ambient soundscapes of 'Either Ore' and Berndt's 'Solstice' exploring widescreen minimalism dub, with plenty more to love in between.

Welcome into the world of scarse music for the ultimate connoisseurs, fine taste beatmakers and holy grails collectors.
You made a step close to The Edge.
From cult Italian soundtrack and 80's iconic anime, English and French library music, to tunes that made Hip Hop iconic anthem, Medline picked 10 compositions to cover, among his favorite crate diggers treasures.

With a 30 years Dj's culture, he unite on vinyl a collection of underground classics.
When other musicians sample, as former beatmaker, he found his fulfillment by playing the entire tracks, as homage to these composers.

In 2018 Solstice has set the corner stone of this unique artwork at the cross road of Jazz, Funk, Soul and Hip Hop worldwide culture.
With The Edge, the out of boundaries producer, placed the level even more higher.
The whole work is incredible, for a man alone, without music theory knowledge but playing flutes, horns, keyboard, guitar and many more instruments... creating in his little home studio the sound of a 70's orchestra.

Challenging and epic:
Epic for covers like A Day In The Life, Beatles cover by Les Demerle, took by Buck Wild for O.C. Time's Up and of course the eponym David Axelrod's The Edge on David McCallum album.

Challenging, for library anthem like Hot Dog, Ghetto or Keep Quiet by Jacky Giordano, sharp and definitely audacious.
Despite the variety of the ten themes, the man's touch is present each time, into the texture, sound taste and balance. Like a chef bringing up to date magical recipes.

The archetypal type of records My Bags loves to release, "The Edge" is built as a crate digger paradise, a timeless record linking past and present into a highly concentrate of divine grooves.

One Million Eyes, previously known as Templehof, return with a new album of balearic ambient, previously heard on two excellent releases for A Strangely Isolated Place.

This time appearing on legendary cassette label Constellation Tatsu as part of their fall combo, anyone familiar with their previous work will know what to expect. Dreamy, sun hazed analog synth lines mix with deep fourth world soundscapes that wouldn’t sound out of place on 90s labels such as Pete Namlook’s Fax or Instinct Ambient. The first half of Signal begins slowly, eyes wide shut, with 'Nickel', a slow pulsating jam of chilled out psychedelia. 'Marea' blends organic instrumentation with distant, processed voices. ‘Koala’, the deepest cut on the album, leads to a mood shift in 'Opalescent' that will sound eerily familiar to any Gaussian Curve fans. 'Polaris', 'Solstice' and highlight 'Landscape' close out the album in style.

For fans of anyone from Music From Memory, Jonathan Fitoussi & Ishq, there are few better ways to relive your memories of later summer.

Unbelievably killer and super, super heavy brand-new Psyche/Krautrock album coming out of nowhere from Brown Spirits, new on Soul Jazz Records!
Brown Spirits are from Melbourne, Australia. Their stripped down and tight musical unit is a trio (think Cream or Hendrix!) of raw bass, drums and shared guitar/keyboards meets the D-I-Y attitude and punk/post-punk intensity, giving them a unique hi-octane sound.

Opposing rising colder days but in line with greyed-out skies, Metamorphism EP by Swedish producer Dold pays tribute to nature's brutal, subterranean forces where winter solstice causes the world to look paused and asleep.

Four uncompromising tracks that emerge from minimalistic elements to genuine narration full of drive and energy, showcasing Dold's unique, dynamic handwriting in composition once again. T3R014 finds us at the right time and place where blackbirds and north winds take control, reminding us that heat and fire will always exist deep below us.

DJ und Produzent Brennan Heart (Fabian Bohn) ist seit mehreren Jahren in Hochform. Ein wahrer Star der Hardstyle-Szene mit vielen Studio- und Mixalben, Golden Awards und Kollaborationen mit den Grössten der internationalen Szene - von Steve Aoki über Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike bis Ben Nicky.

"Save Euphoric" ist sein bisher persönlichstes Album, ein Spiegelbild seines jüngeren Ichs. Brennan: ""Save Euphoric" handelt davon, diesem fröhlichen, lebhaften Kind in mir endlich den Raum zum Atmen zu geben. Zu lange habe ich mich hinter der Arbeit versteckt, hinter "Leidenschaften", die mir viel gebracht, mich aber völlig aus dem Gleichgewicht geworfen haben. Es ist ein persönlicher Spiegel, eine Erinnerung daran, auf dem Boden zu bleiben. Ich glaube, unser geliebter Hardstyle ist genug gereift, dass ich all dies jetzt durch unsere Musik teilen kann."

Dieses Meisterwerk von einem Album enthält 19 Titel und jeder davon erzählt einen anderen Teil von Fabians Geschichte. Sie alle gehen zurück zu den euphorischen Wurzeln des Hardstyle und zeigen seine Liebe zu grossen Melodien, orchestralen Breaks und Ausdruckskraft in seinen Songs. Die Entstehung war eine Zusammenarbeit von Fabian mit einigen seiner musikalischen Freunde, darunter Timmy Trumpet, Jonathan Mendelsohn (u.a. bei "Running Up That Hill"), Toneshifterz, u.v.a. Die CD enthält eine persönliche Nachricht von Fabian selbst und bietet über eine Stunde Hardstyle vom Feinsten. Ein absolutes Muss für alle Fans von euphorischem Hardstyle!

Transparent Curacao Vinyl. Award-winning composer for video games and Scottish artist, Barry "Epoch" Topping (PARADISE KILLER, SENTRY, THATCHER'S TECHBASE, ENCOUNTERS) returns with "The Needs", 11 songs of lavish reflection in a modern city pop style. The album takes the listener through an emotional exploration of identity and change set against the backdrop of late summer. It fuses city pop, rock and dance music into a rich, dreamy blast of video game-tinged modern pop music. But "The Needs" is more than just an album title, like Barry explains: "It's a new ensemble built around a core of the musicians that worked with me on Paradise Killer: Fiona Lynch, Fabian Hernandez, Thomas Temple and Kyle Murray-Dickson. A new trio of horns Elin Andersson, Nicklas Dahlin and Simon Fransman round out the full lineup. Having such talented musicians involved in a much bigger way has allowed us to challenge ourselves and make the best, most over the top music we've made yet. 'The Needs' was created as a vehicle for my own reflections and is intended to help listeners reflect and find solace too. No album can be universal but if 'The Needs' can help people feel seen or understood then I'll feel like it's been a success. Getting to make the album has been an extremely rewarding experience."

The Norwegian indie-pop super-group with members from Making Marks, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Mildfire, Flight Mode and Elva return with a third album of original Christmas songs.

Get into that alternative, Nordic Christmas spirit! Christmas III at its heart is an alt-Christmas album: the songs are firmly rooted in December’s festivities, albeit not usually relying on the season’s traditional reference points. The songs hone in on the more ambivalent sides of Christmas - family, customs and the passing of time - with a keen eye towards the holidays’ most obvious function in countries close to the Artic circle: getting through the cold and dark times to celebrate the winter solstice and the turning of the sun. Drawing from Sufjan Stevens’ epic indie Christmas compendium and Phil Spector’s wall of sound classic A Christmas Gift From You, Christmas III is built on shimmering guitars, snow filled piano lines, gentle strings, springy vocals and dynamic drums - all steadily conducted by Sunturns’ own Sjur Lyseid (Flight Mode, The Little Hands of Asphalt) in the producer’s seat at his Globus studio in Oslo. With 3 songwriters (Ola Innset, Einar Stray & Sjur Lyseid) contributing to Christmas III, there’s an ever shifting sense of reflections. Parenthood and the struggles of the dark Norwegian winter is behind Ola’s track First Winter. “Sometimes I feel bad about bringing children into such a difficult world. Not so much with respect to daylight and the seasons, they’re just going to have to learn how to live with it, but with many other things – like war, poverty, climate change and even just death.” Back In Town might have been inspired by a discussion over whether Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” is a Christmas song or not, but it’s written about his youngest daughter Klara, to his elder daughter, about taking holidays with your family in a town you once lived. Einar pulls in Phoenix and Mew by the way of Jesus and Mary Chain on Crash Course Christmas, resulting in a seasick wave of a pop tune. “It’s a song about the guilt of not prioritizing your relationships. It’s been year of rainchecks and Christmas finally gives you some time to reflect. You’ve experienced so much and changed so much as a person that you almost forget your origins. Coming home for Christmas can then be a ritual of finding your way back to what you left behind." Drawing on the knitwear from the film Love, Actually, Turtle Neck, taps into the Backstreet Boys by way of Mac Demarco, with a sneaky reference to the legendary Norwegian Christmas hit En Stjerne Skinner I Natt. Album closer This Christmas / Next Christmas leans in on the hook for the Norwegian Christmas TV show Jul i Blåfjell, a multi-generational seasonal staple (essentially a daily children’s advent calendar kids show). “The song is about your parents ageing and needing your help – possibly really far away - while at the same time having your own children to take care of”. The cover artwork is a homage to Christmas dress codes for Norwegian men. Suits and shirts are a rarity in day to day life, but there are a handful of occasions that require some form of formal attempt at a suit: New Year’s Eve, National Day, weddings & funerals, and Christmas Eve: resulting in various degrees of sartorial elegance on the day (and on this instance, a hot summer’s day stifling the Christmas vibes, with ambiguous apparel instructions ahead of the photoshoot!).

Merry Christmas! Sunturns are Ola Innset – vocals, guitars, banjo. Sjur Lyseid – vocals, guitars. Einar Stray – vocals, keyboards, guitars. Eivind Almhjell – guitars, bass. Simen Herning – guitar. Jørgen Nordby – drums.

Recital presents a newly unearthed recording of an interview between Sun Ra and composer Charlie Morrow recorded at his New York studio in 1989. This voice-only recording develops more like a kaleidoscopic sermon than any standard interview.

Charlie Morrow recalls:
My 1989 Summer Solstice Celebration featured Sun Ra and his Arkestra. On March 29, 1989, ahead of this historical performance, Sun Ra came to New York to plan the performance and do an interview with me in the Charles Morrow Associates studio. There were members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, some of my team, and a photographer present. Once in the sound studio, Sun Ra wanted to record the discussion. What he says is so much more than anyone expected. I pushed record on the tape recorder, which quietly took it all in.

What Sun Ra recorded is a breathtaking expression of his feelings and strong convictions, illustrated with personal memories and stories. My few questions to him about the upcoming Solstice and about the sun and his thoughts about a dawn event triggered his mind. He launched into a nonstop journey of ricocheting stories and concepts, climaxing when I started jamming with Sun Ra on conch horn. Our duo drives to a climactic peak with explosive conch breath sounds giving line-by-line affirmations to Sun Ra’s points.

The 1989 Summer Solstice event brought together Sun Ra and his constellation of musicians and fans with my large-scale gatherings and work with the New Wilderness Foundation. Here in 2023 and beyond, the events live again. Sean McCann of Recital was drawn to Sun Ra’s words, which inspired the production of this edition. Sun Ra’s words seem to have an even greater resonance in present time. Ra is calling out the turbulence of the bad actions of the righteous and the good actions that an evil man, as he dubs himself, can perform, all the time believing that music has the possibility to bring all humans to a better place.

Charlie Morrow, 2023 / Helsinki, Finland

One-time pressing of 425 copies, includes 12-page booklet with rare photos and full transcription of interview, 24”x18” poster of Sun Ra 1989 Solstice performance photograph

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Get ready to feel the contagious energy of Bunch Of Funk Vol.2 and dance without restraint!