Suche:sy us

The tenth anniversary edition of Venetian Snares' Traditional Synthesizer Music adds ten more tracks and alternative versions previously available only on a limited edition compact disc from the artist's Bandcamp.Traditional Synthesizer Music is a collection of songs created and performed live exclusively on the modular synthesizer by Aaron Funk. Each sound contained within was created purely with the modular synthesizer. No overdubbing or editing techniques were utilized in the recordings on Traditional Synthesizer Music. Each song was approached from the ground up and dismantled upon the completion of its recording. The goal was to develop songs with interchangeable structures and substructures, yet musically pleasing motifs.

Many techniques were incorporated to "humanize" or vary the rhythmic results within these sub structures. An exercise in constructing surprises, patches interrupting each other to create unforeseen progressions. Multiple takes were recorded for each song resulting in vastly different versions of each piece, a number of which are released for the first time on vinyl and digital for this updated version of the album. BIO Aaron Funk, mainly known artistically as Venetian Snares, is a Canadian electronic musician based in Winnipeg, Manitoba who’s been working since the mid nineties. He is widely known for innovating and popularising the breakcore genre being something of its breakout star. His signature style features complex drums and unusual time signatures and a knack for making ultra-vivid music that takes listeners into unusual places, from the aggressive and extreme, to the surreal, comic and sometimes plain beautiful. His musical explorations extend out in many different ways, from the complex Hungarian, classical-inspired Rossz Csillag Alatt Született, to acid explorations as Last Step, to innovations with modular synths on Traditional Synthesiser Music.

As a collaborator, he’s made music using intimate recordings as musical elements with the artist Hecate as Nymphomatriarch, as Poemss with Joanne Pollock, where they both sing over strange delicate pop. He’s recorded an album of rich, edited improvisations with producer and guitarist Daniel Lanois and he’s also part of the sometime duo Speed Dealer Moms with John Frusciante. Most recently he features on Rosalia’s album Lux on the song Reliquia, providing drum programming and production input.

The North Carolina trio Setting brings together their substantial collective skills as musicians and their collaborative mindset to bear in their inventive and rich improvisations. Known for work in Mind Over Mirrors, Califone, Black Twig Pickers, Pelt, Peeesseye, Sylvan Esso, and Jake Xerxes Fussell, multi- instrumentalists Jaime Fennelly, Nathan Bowles and Joe Westerlund subvert expectations while creating a sense of wonderment. Their intricate interplay of synthesizers, cassette loops, banjo, keyboards, electronics, zithers, and a litany of percussive instruments form a tactile amalgam of celestial transcendence and terrestrial rhythm, a loamy pulse fluidly guiding every minute fluctuation in feel. Setting"s self-titled album is a definitive statement of their improvisational acumen meeting compositional rigor, a robust wellspring of hypnagogic grooves and mosaiced textures. The eponymous album from Setting is the product of three intuitive players and deep listeners, artists who use those skills to create transformative music. The trio shirk any broader categorizations, as their unique dynamic pieces are alight with arrangements urgent and smoldering, patient and emotive.

The North Carolina trio Setting brings together their substantial collective skills as musicians and their collaborative mindset to bear in their inventive and rich improvisations. Known for work in Mind Over Mirrors, Califone, Black Twig Pickers, Pelt, Peeesseye, Sylvan Esso, and Jake Xerxes Fussell, multi- instrumentalists Jaime Fennelly, Nathan Bowles and Joe Westerlund subvert expectations while creating a sense of wonderment. Their intricate interplay of synthesizers, cassette loops, banjo, keyboards, electronics, zithers, and a litany of percussive instruments form a tactile amalgam of celestial transcendence and terrestrial rhythm, a loamy pulse fluidly guiding every minute fluctuation in feel. Setting"s self-titled album is a definitive statement of their improvisational acumen meeting compositional rigor, a robust wellspring of hypnagogic grooves and mosaiced textures. The eponymous album from Setting is the product of three intuitive players and deep listeners, artists who use those skills to create transformative music. The trio shirk any broader categorizations, as their unique dynamic pieces are alight with arrangements urgent and smoldering, patient and emotive.

- 2026 repress / hot foil printed sleeve -

Limited Edition: Box with holographic hot foil logo print and five printed inner sleeves - No Repress

SHDW's label, Mutual Rytm hits a notable milestone at the start of 2024 as it turns two years old and hits its 20th release. To mark the occasion, the carefully curated compilation 'Federation Of Rytm III' arrives on February 2nd with a 30-track 5 x 12" boxset vinyl release and a further 6 digital bonus tracks.

Mutual Rytm is synonymous with serious, no-frills techno. It is a go-to for the world's most influential DJs and a home to some of the scene's most innovative producers. Over the last two years, it has explored several shades of sound, always with high-quality production and forward-thinking styles. A fine balance has always been struck between new and emerging talents and established names with plenty more to say, and that is the case on this collection which features the legendary likes of Blawan, Gary Beck, Colin Benders, The Advent and Dax J next to ANNE, Alarico, JakoJako, Chlar, LDS and many more.

Founder SHDW says, "I've poured my heart into curating a compilation of 36 tracks, a reflection of my deepest musical passions. The lineup is stacked with incredible artists, and it captures the label's essence - a fusion of artists spanning generations, united by a shared spirit and aesthetic, creating a seamless 'mutual rhythm'."

Although all 36 tracks stand alone as high-grade and club-ready dynamite, they also collectively form a versatile listening experience thanks to how they've been carefully assembled into a perfectly sequenced journey.

Each one dives into a different nuance within the world of techno and there is a range of moods from dark and driving to more energising and uplifting. The collection not only shows how far Mutual Rytm has come in a short space of time but also that it remains in a constant state of evolution and has a bright future ahead in 2024 and beyond.

SHDW's vision at Mutual Rytm was always to present a cohesive yet varied musical experience, and Federation Of Rytm III does exactly that.

Entering the abandoned warehouse full of haze and blinded by the strobe lights, you feel the rush when the bass kicks in. You have no idea if the year is 1996 or 2026, but it doesn't matter as long as you are alive.

Indeed, another batch of forgotten and previously unreleased radioactive acid techno has surfaced on the anonymous, vinyl-only Kilotoni imprint — possibly their strongest release so far.

A1 The peak of acid techno is perhaps found in its most stripped-down form. As the bass line throbs your breath out, you try to chase the kick drum in a game of hide-and-seek until complete exhaustion. It's something you play after the copies of Betty Ford and Sync In start to melt during a nuclear reactor accident.

A2 A ravey or hard-techno-oriented approach is applied to the acid techno formula here. The squelching, pulse-width-modulated synth makes for an eerie yet irresistible call to the dance floor. The snare rolls might just be your guilty pleasure.

B1 The flip side opens with funkier techno that the Voyager probes could bump to in outer space a million years from now. A wild acid line is accompanied by playful chords and beats. Detroit influences meet Nordic melancholy.

B2 The kick drum keeps pounding its way through while a lonely TB-303 is traveling in its own space and time. Influenced perhaps by the Midwest acid techno style, this could be a mid-90s DAT-tape lost inside the transatlantic postal system on its way to the Analog Records USA headquarters.

2026 Repress

Akusmi is the project moniker of French-born, London based composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Pascal Bideau, who signs to the new Tonal Union imprint for the release of his album 'Fleeting Future.' With its hallucinatory, genre-defying blend of minimalism, cosmic jazz and Fourth World influences, and in its quest for optimism in the face of unknown and limitless possibility. 'Fleeting Future' stands apart as an inventive and inspirational debut.

The creation of the album's richly colourful and multi-layered sound world was originally inspired by Bideau's journey to Indonesia, where he immersed himself in traditional Gamelan and gong music. Many of the themes, motifs and melodies on 'Fleeting Future' seed from the 'Slendro' scale, one of the essential tuning systems used in Gamelan. However it is not musical scales, but scales as in the size or extent of things that most fascinates Bideau, specifically he explains; "the compelling way things dramatically change when you shift from any given scale to another."

The album connects directly to nature and the wider world in its evocation of perceptive shifts and transitions from microscopic to macro scale, as evidenced by the opening title track 'Fleeting Future', on which a simple dotted saxophone line morphs and billows into synths, brass and strings, indicating the musical voyage that lies ahead. Like the start of a journey or adventure it is full of anticipation, its arborescent growth conveying the optimism of the unknown and of limitless possibility. The album centrepiece 'Neo Tokyo' is a vibrating, ebullient mass of colliding elements which feels like zooming in to the electron level, as it teeters on the edge of chaos. The title is a reference to Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, a dizzying work of art set in a sprawling futuristic metropolis.

'Yurikamome', meanwhile, is an imaginary soundtrack inspired by Bideau's yearning to visit Japan which he fuels by watching Youtube videos of drives and rides through Japanese landscapes and cities. "It's amazing" he adds, "that we have the ability to access almost anywhere in the world and see what it's like, that people document it and upload it. It's never going to be any replacement for the real thing, but with places that really touch you, it works." The track is named after a Japanese monorail train line which rides from Shinbashi to Toyosu, a last journey that feels like a new beginning.


'Fleeting Future' was composed and recorded by Bideau between 2017 and 2019 in his North London studio and features additional contributions recorded in Berlin by Florian Juncker (trombone), Ruth Velten (saxophone) and regular collaborator Daniel Brandt of Brandt Brauer Frick (drums / electronic percussion). Having been living through uncertain times, one thing that keeps spiralling into the unknown is the future, about which Bideau leaves us with a final thought:

"The future is fascinating: It is constantly readjusting to new events. I feel we left a linear approach to the future to enter an arborescent one where all the data and information we have about what could happen is exponentially ever-growing. Following a branch might allow you to glimpse into what it may become, but the evolution of the whole picture might very well render the prediction totally obsolete, and even meaningless. In that sense, there is not one future but innumerable ones all cancelling each other. That's what makes it fleeting."

Love Reaction returns with a new release and unveils the third and final chapter of its vinyl catalogue: ZONE, a series dedicated to club-oriented electronic music. For the occasion, the label welcomes ORA, two seasoned professional musicians rooted in the jazz scene, eager to explore new sonic territories together.

With Common Frequency, the duo unfolds a raw and organic sonic tapestry. Live, they sculpts landscapes in real time using drum machines and synthesizers, unleashing a club energy that is both electric and vibrant. Between analog textures and immersive rhythms, this debut EP asserts a strong and magnetic identity.

Returning with his first artist album in 13 years, revered techno innovator Mike Parker continues to shape out his explorations around 170 with his latest work for Samurai Music, Echo Disintegrator. Transcending genre lines with his unmistakable sonic stamp, the seasoned US producer crafts an extended trip through his exacting, lithe frequencies and brutalist rhythms. As evidenced on recent EPs Envenomations and Sabre-Tooth, Parker can comfortably slip into a hard-stepping D&B structure and make it his own. 'Earth Energy Imbalance' leaps forth with precision and purpose, wrapping atonal synth shapes around the stark beat in staggering high definition. 'Positronic Tentacles' finds a similar rolling momentum, even threading ruthlessly trimmed vocal snatches into the lyrical pulse of the lead tones. 'Radiative Force' teases its own mutant funk out of the envelopes shaping the molten sonics coursing through the middle of the frequency range. Elsewhere, Parker explores a variety of accented grooves around typical D&B tempos, remaining reliably broken while dipping into half-time space on 'Lunar Nocturne' and finding a low-slung swagger in the carefully deployed pressure of 'Ghost Rain' and 'Echo Disintegrator'. 'Beat Activator' pivots on a dense bed of bass with a crooked, off-beat slant before 'Dragon Bravo' casts a similarly dembow-informed beat into a dense tapestry of cyclical machine shrieks and snarls. There is a ruthless consistency to Parker's approach across Echo Disintegrator, riding the loops without flinching and forcing the focus deep into the minutae of every sonic element. Both brilliantly functional and profoundly subtle, there's a visceral, physical quality to the sound design that makes it a listening experience like no other.

Colophon creates electronic music using synthesizers and drum machines from the '80s and '90s that are no longer in production. Everything beeps and crackles, shaping atmospheric soundscapes layered with deep basslines and melancholic pads full of character.

'Dimension Six EP' delivers a six-track journey, moving through techno, acid, slow burners, and ambient. Imperfections are left intact, giving the music a raw, human feel rather than something overly clean, clinical, or artificial. It's the meeting point between old and new technology that makes the process so fascinating and inspiring - the endless places you can go, discovering new sounds within sounds.

Alongside producing music, Colophon also runs 'Loop of Life', a record label where music, fine art, and graphic design converge, releasing limited-edition vinyl with handmade artwork covers.

Reviews
'The excellent, excellent sounds of Colophon' Ben Sims on NTS Radio, London
'My favourite tracks of the moment' ASOK on Rinse FM, London

Anané’s colourful life in music has seen her do everything from singing at the famous pre-game show at Super Bowl XLI as part of the group Elements of Life, DJ at hotspots like Hi Ibiza, Pacha NYC and Ushuaïa to name a few, while also curating her own monthly residency Nulu Movement, now ten years strong at Le Bain NYC, release unique blends of Afro, house, and pop on labels like Vega Records, and head up her own imprints, Nulu Music and Nulu Electronic. The Cape Verdean-born DJ, producer, vocalist, and songwriter has had countless club hits and has released acclaimed albums like ‘Ananésworld’ and ‘Chapters Of Becoming’, often with a lush, live, and orchestrated style that is truly unique.

With this release, Anané steps forward with her first solo production to date. Here she serves up the sumptuous ‘It Looks Like Love’, a poised, elegant house sound with her own smoking, soulful vocals and classy strings bringing colour to an Afro groove packed with infectious bounce. Neat guitar riffs and silky synths all enrich this most sophisticated sound. The first mix sees Anané link up with veteran Italian Christian Mantini, who has hosted Sunset Ritual parties with Anané and Louie Vega since 2013. Their dub is rooted in warm, rubbery drums that are even deeper and more immersive than the original.

Manda Moor & Sirus Hood are a red-hot contemporary pair who run the Mood label and are defining the contemporary underground. Their remix is more driving, but it retains the soulful vibe with breezy pads and jazzy motifs drifting in and out above the swaggering groove.

Rotterdam-based Chicagoan Jamie 3:26 is a master at blending disco, soul, and house into timeless sounds, and here he delivers a loopy rework that pairs deep drive and sun-kissed vibes with funky, Chic-style bass guitar motifs.

Returning with his first artist album in 13 years, revered techno innovator Mike Parker continues to shape out his explorations around 170 with his latest work for Samurai Music, Echo Disintegrator. Transcending genre lines with his unmistakable sonic stamp, the seasoned US producer crafts an extended trip through his exacting, lithe frequencies and brutalist rhythms. As evidenced on recent EPs Envenomations and Sabre-Tooth, Parker can comfortably slip into a hard-stepping D&B structure and make it his own. 'Earth Energy Imbalance' leaps forth with precision and purpose, wrapping atonal synth shapes around the stark beat in staggering high definition. 'Positronic Tentacles' finds a similar rolling momentum, even threading ruthlessly trimmed vocal snatches into the lyrical pulse of the lead tones. 'Radiative Force' teases its own mutant funk out of the envelopes shaping the molten sonics coursing through the middle of the frequency range. Elsewhere, Parker explores a variety of accented grooves around typical D&B tempos, remaining reliably broken while dipping into half-time space on 'Lunar Nocturne' and finding a low-slung swagger in the carefully deployed pressure of 'Ghost Rain' and 'Echo Disintegrator'. 'Beat Activator' pivots on a dense bed of bass with a crooked, off-beat slant before 'Dragon Bravo' casts a similarly dembow-informed beat into a dense tapestry of cyclical machine shrieks and snarls. There is a ruthless consistency to Parker's approach across Echo Disintegrator, riding the loops without flinching and forcing the focus deep into the minutae of every sonic element. Both brilliantly functional and profoundly subtle, there's a visceral, physical quality to the sound design that makes it a listening experience like no other.

We are excited to continue our work with Art P / Art Programming by finally offering the first full-length work from this Bremen-based electronic group. Originally released only on cassette in 1983, the self-titled album has now been fully restored and remastered, complete with bonus tracks and unreleased mixes unearthed from a rare demo.

The LP opens with "Wesen vom anderen Stern" ("Beings from Another Planet"), a downtempo, 808-driven electro synth wave track with German lyrics telling a story of aliens capturing earth, becoming the new "Herren" (lords), while humans are reduced to mere "objects." Art Programming founding member Jens-Markus Wegener notes that this track has always been a favorite during live performances, and it's easy to imagine how the futuristic sounds would have blown people away at the time.

Next is the electro/proto-techno title track "Art Programming," which we previously issued on a limited 12" in its full-length form. With its straightforward Roland 808 rhythms, catchy synth lines, and vocoder vocals, it's a classic example of German electro, and one of the earliest proto-techno tracks - long before Cybotron claimed the techno mantle. Its extensive break and electronic twist make it an early precursor to the genre. Wegener recalls that this track was created exclusively by him and Grotelüschen, with Grotelüschen contributing most of the melodic elements, while Wegener focused on drum machine programming and vocoder vocals.

On "That's Me," the album welcomes back singer Claudia Roebke. Although it's an electronic composition, Roebke adds a rock-infused, almost psychedelic vibe to the song. The lyrics, written by Wegener, depict a person obsessed with their appearance, using irony to critique societal beauty norms, questioning the obsession with perfection and attraction.

The album continues with a series of uptempo electro tracks: "Videoscreen," "La Gare," and "Genscher Pull 'N' Push." The first two feature slightly different mixes from an earlier demo that we personally prefered over the versions that were available on the final cassette release. "Videoscreen" expands on the theme of social isolation, with lyrics reflecting on a world obsessed with watching video all day - a topic that resonates strongly with today's culture of doom scrolling and social media addiction.

Next up, "Genscher Pull 'N' Push" is an incredible electro/wave/proto-techno track recorded in October 1982 with a political edge. Originally omitted from the album, it was only available on the demo cassette we mentioned earlier. The song takes aim at German politics, with lyrics that shout "bitte geh nach links / bitte geh nach rechts" ("please go to the left" and "please go to the right"), referencing the shifting political allegiances during the 1982 coalition change, when Genscher's party, the FDP, left the Helmut Schmidt cabinet to join the CDU/CSU opposition. The track was never released as the political topic had become outdated just a few months later.

The album closes with "Light and Fire," which originally served as the album's opening track. Its quirky, upbeat vibe now makes for a fitting outro.

The gear used on this album reads like a dream list for early 80s electronic music production: Roland Jupiter 4, TR 808, TB 303, System 100, SVC 350, Korg Mono/Poly, Moog Prodigy, FRICKE-Sequenzer, Roland CSQ-100 Sequenzer, Coron DS-8, MM 12/2, Sony TC 399, TEAC-244 Portastudio, Ibanez DM 1000, EH-Electric Mistress, EV-Micro. This unique lineup of equipment sets the album apart from NDW releases of the era, lending it a distinct sound with heavy proto-techno leanings and that straightforward electro vibe we all love.

The album is being released as a very limited edition of 300 copies on transparent red vinyl, complete with a full picture sleeve and lyrics inlay. This is yet another rediscovered and restored 80s gem on our label that you definitely don't want to miss!

Continuing his inspired path into fractalised micro-dub-techno, John Howes lands his Paperclip Minimiser project amongst kindred spirits on Blank Mind. Crooked rhythms and tender machine hums hang in crisply defined virtual space — a gallery of science and soul that follows a natural lineage from the breakthrough years of the clicks n' cuts era by way of UK bass permutations.

Operating out of the UK's North West, Howes has been incubating a singular sound through his ongoing development of intuitive production and performance tools under the Cong Burn banner. The sometime record label and software stamp has a long-standing friendship with Blank Mind—the affinity is easy to hear in their shared exploration of modernist broken techno. Having just released a second album under his Paperclip Minimiser alias for similarly spirited West Coast US lodestar Peak Oil, Topology Transform extends the project's sound world with three tracks carved from the same period of studio orienteering. Free of the constraints of the LP format, these three tracks open up broader possibilities from Howes' customised systems, navigating the outer edges of the Paperclip paradox.

The A side opens on a 150BPM cascade of crunchy percussion and pin-prick ripples, driven by twitchy kinesis while maintaining a light-footed dexterity. If the first track finds its locomotion through double-time intensity, the second track celebrates the space that opens up around half-time pacing — two sides of the same tempo that radiate distinct energies. Conversely, the B side stretches out into an extended ambient repose. The consistency between this beatless excursion and the more propulsive A side speaks to the clarity of Howes' craft—a shimmering, blue-hued pool of advanced sonic treatment from a producer in command of a truly personal studio practice.

The new label R.I.T.M.O. launches its journey with a clear statement of intent: VOID RIFT QUANTUM, a six-episode cosmic voyage by WHITE SOLAR DOG, complemented by two premium remixes from UNIVAC and PROMISING YOUNGSTER. The EP opens with “VOID RIFT QUANTUM” a dark, expansive electro exercise where crushing basslines, syncopated rhythms, and a dialogue between vocoders and acid lines evoke an interplanetary landscape. On “I.N.S.I.D.E.” the intensity ramps up through driving percussion, tribal voices, razor-sharp breaks, and an almost ritual force that propels the body into physical and mental trance.

UNIVAC’s reinterpretation of the title track unleashes his full arsenal: a steely remix of relentless energy that pushes the original into a hard-edged industrial realm, stamped with the unmistakable signature of the Catalan producer. “MOVE YOUR BODY” showcases WHITE SOLAR DOG’s most direct side: classic electro with heavy bass, pads, and bright melodies, where the machine calls the dancefloor to action without compromise. The journey reaches its most ethereal point with “SING TO ME” where a female vocal intertwines with broken rhythms, crystalline atmospheres, and fresh acid incursions—cementing WSD’s personal hallmark: equal parts intensity and spirituality. The release closes with Promising Youngster’s remix, which takes the vocal elements of “SING TO ME” and guides them into a hypnotic state, suspended between the dreamlike and the club. With VOID RIFT QUANTUM, R.I.T.M.O. presents its inaugural catalog, distilling the power of contemporary electro and the otherworldly vision of WHITE SOLAR DOG. A debut that clearly establishes its coordinates: impact, exploration, and progressiveness, introduces itself to the world through an inaugural catalogue that distills the present and future of electro: mysticism, power, and precision.

All covers are handmade. They feature a fluorescent strip along the sides for easy identification, and under black light, the Spanish version of the cover is visible. Each disc contains three handmade inserts: a pop-up of R.I.T.M.O., a template, and a paper synthesizer model based on the actual synthesizers used to create the album (a different one on each disc). Each disc comes in a plastic sleeve.

All covers are handmade. They feature a fluorescent strip along the sides for easy identification, and under black light, the Spanish version of the cover is visible. Each disc contains three handmade inserts: a pop-up of R.I.T.M.O., a template, and a paper synthesizer model based on the actual synthesizers used to create the album (a different one on each disc). Each disc comes in a plastic sleeve.

Certain paths necessitate and call for one singular long sequence in order to arrive at a fully formed conversation or reasoning. Nothing seems to broadcast it more clearly than the trajectory Brussels based Italo-Vietnamese artist Nguyễn Zen Mỹ embarked on during the last decade as Radio Hito.

After a string of highly cherished and sought out tape releases, Radio Hito’s new album ‘L’uso e gli attributi del cuore’, co-released by Maple Death & Meakusma, unfolds with devastating
clarity, a profound balance of depth, minimalism and emotional grounding. A ten-sequence song cycle for voice and MIDI soundfonts adapted from the 2021 book by French poet Claude
Royet-Journoud.

Written and recorded between January 2023 and August 2025, the cycle evolved through nearly 80 live performances from Galicia to Kazakhstan before arriving at its recorded form. Set to an Italian libretto adapted from Royet-Journoud’s text ‘L'usage et les attributs du cœur’ (POL, 2021), the work revisits the tradition of the 19th-century Lied — art song built on existing poetry— transposed into a radically economical contemporary setting: voice and Casio CTK workstations.

"I was interested by this incompleteness CRJ mentions - by the ‘suspension’ of meaning questioning readability and intelligibility. I ‘resisted’ to CRJ’s texts since I met him and got to know his work. … It seems to me that when playing the songs, I submit an object to be completed by the audience."

Radio Hito’s distinctive approach to setting poetry to music — spare arrangements, strophic repetition, and a voice suspended between recital, fm transmission and canzone — creates a language of its own, reaching new heights on ‘L’uso e gli attributi del cuore’, songs that are formally rigorous, emotionally restrained, and shaped by the discipline of sustained live performance, interlocking into a coherent cycle.

Rather than illustrating the poem, Radio Hito approaches it as a space of suspension. Royet-Journoud described poetry as a “profession of ignorance” where meaning remains incomplete; these songs extend that trembling state, allowing repetition, digital timbre, and restraint to hold the text open.

Often misread as minimal synth or romantic chanson, Radio Hito’s practice is rooted instead in the lineage of the art song and song cycle: open structures, close attention to language, and a live performance economy that pushes the voice at the heart of the stage. The choice of accessible keyboard workstations — light, portable, and embedded in contemporary popular culture — replaces the historical piano.

Radio Hito creates fantastical, mirage-like songs, intimate yet elusive. Her music is forlorn chanson for the digital age; bringing her haunting and beautiful vocalisations into conversation with MIDI soundfonts and humble-yet-deep casio compositions. Music that strides for simplicity, yet lands miraculously within an entire new universe, a uniqueness achieved from like-minded spirits such as Ghedalia Tazartès, Savina Yannatou & Lena Platonos, Dorothy Carter, cycles that trickle down into estuaries.

“Radio Hito's set is superb. Sitting on the altar steps with a synth, her fabulously expressive vocals colour sparse, pensive compositions.” The Wire

Disco Mind keeps the vibes flowing in the New Year with this delicious new collaboration with fellow Italian label Polyamore Artists. It's an extravagant collision of Afro, disco and house styles from Leslie Lello and Paul Older. 'African Layers' opens with rich percussion and organic grooves that bring the heat, then 'Acid Bass' has a more synth-driven sound and electronic edge, but with retro disco motifs. 'There's Light' is a chugger that keeps the pressure on with slapping hits and drum rolls, and 'Winners' then cuts loose with a more sentinel sound full of roomy chords and loved-up whimsy. Useful stuff.

Acclaimed producer, DJ, and dancefloor healer Octo Octa (Maya Bouldry-Morrison) announces her fourth full-length album, Sigils For Survival. Following 2013's Between Two Selves, 2017's Where Are We Going?, and 2019's Resonant Body, the new record marks a decade since Maya publicly came out as transgender in November 2015. ''As an autobiographical artist, I set out to write an album that would be a milestone for this past decade of joy and sorrow,'' Maya explains. ''Sigils For Survival is my attempt to encapsulate the intentions and techniques that I used to move through life into a spell.'' For each of the record's eight tracks, Maya drew a sigil. Each is a personal symbol intended to ''bind magic to the song and seal its intention.'' These drawings appear throughout the physical edition's design. Maya's sister, New York artist Hope Morrison, incorporated each sigil into her original paintings, which comprise the album's vivid artwork. Hope Morrison, whose imagery translates the sigils' energy into vivid form; the layout was designed by Jo?o Ervedosa. Created entirely on hardware instruments and later mixed in Logic, Sigils For Survival captures the tactile immediacy of live performance. Maya preserved the feel of MIDI-clock drift and off-grid recording, letting her machines interact in the rhythmic pocket, rather than confirming them to a click. Alongside her signature deep, ecstatic electronics, the album features hand-played dulcimer, hand-pan, and recorder. Her voice also returns, carrying spells of love, protection, and transformation. Across Sigils For Survival, Octo Octa channels the ecstatic house lineage into an intimate ritual space. The music speaks of immediacy, play, and communion -- of magic as method, love as survival, and sound as spellcraft. Sigils For Survival is both a document of ten years lived fully and an invocation for the next chapter -- a glowing testament to music's power to protect, transform, and set the spirit free.

Call it soulful dream pop, proto-trip hop or downtempo jazz - "Tender Rain" is the follow-up LP to the successful "This Is" album and continues to deliver Ghia's unmistakable sonic magic. On this release, the band shares a selection of previously unreleased vocal songs alongside instrumental pieces, all carried by their trademark chilled and almost meditative atmosphere. Most of the recordings date from the early 1990s, while early demo versions of "New Love" and "Teardrops in Your Eyes" may reach back as far as the late 1980s.

The album opens with the title track "Tender Rain," where smooth vocal jazz harmonies merge effortlessly with soulful pop elements. The track originally appeared only on CD in 1993 on the small Mikado label run by renowned German guitarist Ulli Bögershausen. The band recalls that the piece was first pre-recorded using MIDI equipment and a Tascam 16-track recorder before being completed in the studio with drums by legendary drummer Mickie Stickdorn (Carsten Bohn's Bandstand, Cyklus, Elephant, Lake), percussion by Corinna Ludzuweit, and the final touch-Lisa Ohm's remarkable vocals.

At the time, Mikado was also looking for instrumental material for radio and synchronization use. They selected the track "Tropfstein" for a sampler CD and requested more pieces. In response, "und recken ihre schlanken Glieder" (roughly translated as "and stretching their slender limbs") was composed especially for the project, as Frank Simon remembers. Both tracks appeared on the now rare Mikado sampler CD under the alias z. Zt., short for "zur Zeit" ("at present" or "these days").

Several further pieces in a similar vein were created during this period, including the previously unissued "Auf unserm grünen Sofa," "Reise bei Nacht," and "Was ich Dir noch sagen wollte." These tracks are beautifully crafted downtempo pieces featuring smooth, jazzy piano lines combined with touches of ambient and New Age aesthetics. "Auf unserm grünen Sofa" stands out in particular and will likely resonate with all downtempo enthusiasts. Lutz Boberg recalls that many of these recordings were captured during a single afternoon in the studio, fueled by spontaneous ideas and creative momentum.

On tracks such as "Teardrops in Your Eyes," "New Love," and the haunting Dark Spirits Mix of Ghia's song "What's Your Voodoo?", singer Lisa Ohm delivers soulful pop performances with her clear and captivating voice. "Change Your Sex," the third track previously featured on the Mikado sampler, leans more toward late-1980s funk and was aimed at radio and DJs at the time. Its subject matter was relatively daring for the period, telling the story of someone contemplating a change of sex "to get rid of the troubles."

Together with "This Is" and "Curacao Blue", "Tender Rain" forms another essential chapter in the rediscovery of the band's work. More than thirty years after their creation, these recordings still sound strikingly fresh, reflecting a unique style that in many ways anticipated the rise of trip-hop in the early to mid-1990s.

Frizzell & Duque's A Sorrow Unrequited moves with suspended patience, each LP piece built from simple melodic figures, each of which eventually thicken out to quiet overwhelm. Working outside their Zake/City of Dawn aliases, the pair realise a more diaristic exposure here, drawing their inspiration and track titles from Julia Frizzell's poems of the same name. 'We Once Believed We Owned The Sky' tone-sets the vibe with long, tidal swells of strings and synth, dissonances sparing but weighted, while 'Closer, Always Closer' moves in similarly tidal cycles, with momentary swellings and torn cellos fissuring through the overall sadness.

Oceanine, Jolanda Moletta’s third album and her first for Beacon Sound, is a powerful and ethereal statement of artistic community. Expanding on her previous work, each track represents a collaboration with a different female vocalist, with the foundational elements being generated entirely by her own voice. By turns haunting, enchanting, and inspiring, you won’t want to come up for air once you’ve been pulled under. Representing a
musical practice that is distinctly feminist, this is an album with a longer view in mind, to an age when the altars were to goddesses and women were centered as powerful beings representing the earth’s cycles of regeneration and renewal. Oceanine then, in all its beauty, can be viewed as an album of survival. It is deeply transportive, accessing something that lies within all of us. As the late, great Lithuanian folklorist and archaeologist Marija Gimbutas noted, “We must refocus our collective memory. The necessity for this has never been greater as we discover that the path of 'progress' is extinguishing the very conditions for life on earth.”

Jolanda Moletta is a multimedia artist and one-woman electronic choir. She creates wordless compositions through extended vocal techniques, integrating wearable-controlled live processing, alongside symbolic visuals. Moletta considers her performances to be a collective ritual and creates her Sonic & Visual Spells following the cycles of nature and the moon. Jolanda's 2022 critically acclaimed album Nine Spells was released on the Ambientologist label, followed by Night Caves on Whitelabrecs in 2025. Moletta’s artistic practice is a radical and spiritual journey through sound art, ritual, and the symbolic archaeology of the feminine.

Oceanine is inspired by sirens, water nymphs, and the timeless call of the sea. At its core lies Jolanda’s deep, lifelong connection to the Mediterranean Sea and to the ancient and modern myths and folklore that have emerged from its waters. Growing up by the Mar Ligure, Jolanda was surrounded by stories carried by salt, wind, and waves: legends of sirens, echoes of ancient voices, and the sea as both origin and oracle. This intimate relationship with the Mediterranean is not merely a backdrop, but a living source that shapes Oceanine’s emotional, symbolic, and sonic world.

Each track features a different female vocalist, creating a rich tapestry of voices, styles, and perspectives. This artistic choice not only broadens the album’s sonic palette, but also deepens its narrative core: celebrating the power, beauty, and mystique of feminine energy through myth, history, and sound.

The entire album is built exclusively from the human voice, processed and layered, yet always remaining voice, and nothing else. For each piece, Jolanda invited every vocalist involved to contribute a raw stem: a short, unedited melodic fragment of just a few seconds, inspired by the album’s themes. These intimate vocal seeds became the foundation of each track: the guest artists’ voices appear as brief, melodic stems, while the entire surrounding “orchestral” fabric is created solely from Jolanda’s own layered and processed voice. In this way, Jolanda’s voice becomes the Ocean itself, embracing, absorbing, and carrying the sirens’ calls within a vast, immersive soundscape. Every song is a unique expression of the feminine experience, revealing its depth, complexity, and emotional range, echoing the call of the sea and the many faces of the siren archetype.

The figure of the siren has transformed across centuries. In myths of Ancient Greece and Rome, sirens were hybrid beings, part woman, part bird, whose irresistible songs lured sailors to their doom. During the Middle Ages, the image shifted toward the half-woman, half-fish figure, often associated with temptation and danger. Historically, the voice of women has often been feared. Sirens were considered harbingers of misfortune not simply because they seduced or destroyed, but because they were powerful liminal beings.

In Ancient Greek, sirens functioned as psychopomps: figures who existed between worlds and guided souls, especially between life and death. Their songs were believed to carry forbidden knowledge, including prophetic insight and the ability to reveal truths about fate and the future. The danger of the sirens lay in what they revealed: knowledge that humans were not meant, or ready, to hear.

Oceanine confronts this legacy head-on. The voices heard throughout the album are not merely beautiful: they are dark and luminous, wild and enchanting, magical, soothing, dreamy, and at times fractured or distorted. They whisper, lament, beckon, and enchant. Like sirens, they skim the surface of the water and sink into its depths, hovering on the edge between tenderness and danger, vulnerability and power. They rise toward the sky, dissolve into mist, and return as echoes charged with raw, elemental emotion: voices that seduce, warn, mourn, and remember. They refuse to be reduced to decoration.

Alongside the album’s release in May, Oceanine will also unfold as a visual and performative work through a short art film. The film includes a live session recorded inside a sea cave facing the Mar Ligure, the very coastline where Jolanda spent her childhood, dreaming of sirens and listening to the sea as if it were speaking directly to her. This site-specific performance reconnects the music to its place of origin, allowing the voice to resonate within stone, water, and air, and transforming the cave into both a sanctuary and a threshold between myth and reality.

What if the sirens’ songs were considered dangerous because they carried another truth, an ancient truth long forgotten?

Oceanine embraces the idea that we are still deeply woven into myth. Though we may see ourselves as rational and modern beings, our world is saturated with ancient symbols and archetypes, often distorted, simplified, or stripped of their original meaning. And if those symbols are allowed to shift, if the mirror once held by the siren becomes an invitation to look beyond appearances and into what has been obscured, then we may finally uncover a deeper truth and reclaim the voice that was always ours.

Oceanine is not just an album. It is a reclamation, a spell, and a call from the depths.