Cerca:the arch

With Black Koyo, Mattias De Craene enters a sound world at once intimate and vast. Born from journeys in Morocco and Brussels, the project traces the rhythms, chants, and spirits of the Gnawa tradition, revealing a quiet resonance that echoes De Craene's own search for depth and presence. Guibri, qraqueb, call-and-response chants, saxophone, loops, and electronics come together in a trance-induced dialogue - ritualistic, elemental, and dreamlike - creating a space where listening becomes immersion, tradition meets imagination, and music unfolds as a shared act of reflection and wonder.

About Mattias De Craene
Mattias De Craene's artistic path is marked by rare coherence. As a central voice in Nordmann and MDC III, he developed a physical, rock-inflected jazz language driven by propulsion, volume, and trance-like collective energy. Over time, a period of personal rupture - burnout, tinnitus, depression - shifted his focus inward. The saxophone became a breathing, textural presence, and in his solo work, he weaves saxophone, electronics, loops, and minimal forms into a cinematic, hushed world where repetition, resonance, and silence slow perception. Rooted in ambient and introspection, his music prizes attention over impact, precision over excess - a quiet intensity recognized with a nomination as Musician for the Music Industry Awards (MIA's).

About Black Koyo
Black Koyo is a Brussels-based ensemble and one of the most compelling voices of the Gnawa tradition outside Morocco. Led by maalem Hicham Bilali, the group brings guibri, qrraqueb, and call-and-response chants to life with trance-like intensity and ritual precision. Their music is both rooted and contemporary, weaving earthbound rhythms and vocal invocations into ecstatic, immersive soundscapes, creating a space where ancestral resonance meets present-day imagination.

About Jan Bang
Jan Bang is a pioneering Norwegian producer and musician, celebrated for his mastery of live sampling and his ability to merge electronics with improvisation, rhythm, and texture in real time. He mixed the album and occasionally joins live performances, bringing his signature approach to sound as co-founder of the influential Punkt Festivaland collaborator with artists such as Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Arve Henriksen, and ECM Records' roster. As a performer and sound architect, Bang creates immersive, trance-like sonic textures where silence and sound carry equal weight. Within Mattias De Craene ftBlack Koyo, his live sampling becomes an organic instrument, weaving saxophone, electronics, and Gnawa rhythms into hypnotic, physically charged soundscapes.

Line-up & credits
Mattias De Craene - sax, electronics | Hicham Bilali - guibri, vocals, qraqueb |Ismael Akhraz - vocals, qraqueb | Marwan Abantor - vocals, qraqueb
All tracks are original gnawa traditionals played by Black Koyo and arranged by Mattias De Craene.
Album produced & recorded by Mattias De Craene in Essaouira, Morocco and hometown Ghent, Belgium 2025.
Text by Hicham Bilali.
Mixed by Jan Bang at Punkt Studio
Mastered by Lieven Van Pee
Artwork by Marina Sviridova
Design by Benoit Van Geel
Manufactured and distributed by N.E.W.S.
Executive production by W.E.R.F. records
Supported by Flemish Government, Jazzlab, nona, HA Concerts, Aubergine artist Management,
KAAP, La Bestia (Wout Van Putten) & mdcmu.sic vzw.
2026 (c) W.E.R.F. records

2026 Repress

SK_eleven celebrates a decade of sonic exploration with a 13-track compilation showcasing its signature tension, technical discipline, and stylistic spectrum. Reuniting a tight circle of artists whose contributions have helped shape the label, the release offers an unrelenting sequence of pressure, mental twists, and textural collisions; a multifaceted snapshot of techno's enduring capacity to evolve, disturb, and seduce.

The compilation resists uniformity. Instead, it thrives on contrast: tension versus release, density against spaciousness, rhythm in all its permutations. From high-energy metallic openers and dub-inflected body rollers, to disorienting, delay-heavy experiments and stripped-back percussive tools, each contribution reveals a unique grip on groove and detail. Some tracks move like engineered machines: sharp, robotic, and syncopated to surgical precision. Others embrace sensuality and unpredictability, exploring spatial motion, layered harmonic friction, and states of controlled chaos. Each piece acts as a structural component in a larger sonic architecture, where tension is built, collapsed, and rebuilt. Friction becomes a form of choreography. Across the record, a shifting palette of emotional mechanisms takes form; granular and magnetic, haunting and quietly forceful, restrained, then disruptive.

More than a retrospective, SK_eleven's first compilation becomes a collective gesture toward techno's unresolved possibilities: its ability to hold contradiction, remain in flux, and mutate without conclusion.

This isn’t a compilation—it’s a vinyl conversation between cities, generations, and musical bloodlines. This inaugural release embodies the spirit of collaboration, community, and cross-generational artistry that defines each artist’s deep musical legacy.

A statement on wax bringing together Glenn Underground, Coflo, Jon Dixon, Kevin Reynolds and sillygirlcarmen, this four-song project documents the shared language of five Artists through deep house, jazz roots, and forward-looking soul. Though these artists have shared DJ booths and dance floors around the world, this release marks a rare moment where their creative voices intertwine on wax. Each track stands on its own, but together they form a continuum—past, present, and future etched into wax. Pressed with intention and made for real systems, this release exists for the heads, the selectors, and anyone who still believes vinyl is where the story lives. Meant to be played—not archived. The kind of tracks that feel alive in the room and grow every time you hear them.

‘Ease’ EP tracks:
Glenn Underground ‘Dive (Into The Deep)’; the Chicago legend & Strictly Jaz Unit co-founder combines deep house, freeform jazz & soul, here in a jazz-infused, laid-back, hypnotic melange of house beat, synth chord riff, rippling arps, with a whisper of disco in the bassline and 80’s electro in the high, singing strings.

Coflo x sillygirlcarmen ‘Never Forget (That Feelin’)’; East Bay CA-based Coflo combines Hawaiian & Portugese roots with a global reach. A collaborative skipping house beat, pattering percussion & melodic jazz synth piano embrace sillygirlcarmen’s soulful voice and heartfelt lyrics. This collaboration marks a merging of emotional storytelling and percussive sophistication.

Jon Dixon ‘Saturday At Northland’; Detroit’s modern jazz & techno fusionist, rooted in long study and prestigious performance of classical & jazz piano both in orchestral and electronic contexts, employs his keyboard virtuosity in a thrilling wave of melodic piano improvisation & complex lively percussion, combining sheer craft with spiritual heft.

Kevin Reynolds ‘I Got Music’; from an Irish/US Detroit family, producer/live artist Reynolds blends techno, jazz, soul, from influences as diverse as 90s underground techno, Kraftwerk & John Coltrane, and roles/performances in multiple prestigious venues & positions. Here, a stealthy beat & Kraftwerk-evoking robotic electro synth theme are joined by a dual vocal used as a riff, while clusters of piano chords flower into jazz motifs.

Foxbam Inc is building up a fine head of early steam and after featuring the likes of LFO's Gez Varley and Mark Archer, that looks set to continue into 2026 with this latest various artists EP. It's a white knuckle ride through panel beating techno fervour, starting with Foxtrot's 'Tartam Tripper', which could be called paint stripper, it's that caustic. Collision lays down flat, hard, distorted drums on 'Plop Projekt', Egebamyasi offers up a stuttering, bass-driven club take on an unmistakable 80s electronic classic and Minimum Syndicat's 'Tunnel Chase' is a slower, darker, more foreboding closer that carries serious weight and a soot-black atmosphere from which there is no escape.

Pariter return with a second archival reissue from three key figures of the original London tech house movement, David Coker, Timmy S and Justin Baileys.

This double header pairs a heavyweight house groover on the A side with a rolling acid tech house cut on the flip. The A side is driven by commanding vocal samples and Timmy's finely tuned engineering, channeling the raw, sound-system focused energy that defined the era's most enduring club records.

On the B side, a relentless acid-fuelled roller emerges from the vaults, a secret weapon that has remained deadly on underground dance floors for more than two decades, quietly championed by those in the know.

Now, 26 years on, original copies are nearly impossible to find in clean condition with rare copies regularly changing hands for hundreds of euros on the collector's market.

Carefully restored and remastered by Yossi Amoyal, this reissue revives a long lost and highly sought after underground classic.

20:20 Vision has been defining the house underground for decades now, and much of its earlier material remains as revealing as its newer output. A case in point is this reissue of the rare Echo Beach release. Founder Ralph Lawson and his old pal Carl Finlow's recordings from The Farm in the Rhubarb Triangle retain a warmth and analogue weight that contemporary production struggles to replicate - all hands-on-deck live passes through drum machines, synths and outboard desks, the process audible in every groove. The discovery of unreleased cut 'Blues Dimensions', which was rescued from corrupted DATs, is the real find here: rasping Moog bass, P-Funk refrain and heavy Rhodes that sounds anything but archival. Top drawer excavation.

Reptile Mob is proud to present 'Lost N Found' EP opening the vault to a long-awaited archive collection of unheard garage house tracks from Darlington-born and London-based producer Highrise. Unearthed from old hard drives, this EP captures a raw, unfiltered moment in UK garage, true to its name. Highrise is the alias of Dinn Warde, a name jungle heads know well as Dwarde. While he's been making increasingly large splashes on the jungle scene, his garage output as Highrise on labels like Practical Rhythms, Vibesey Records, Shuffle & Swing, and Fresh Milk Records has been equally on-point. Lost no more, found at last. The 'Lost N Found' EP is yours to discover.

Barely six months after the debut, the paths of the label and the artist converge once more — at their intersection, TECH039 emerges. This work significantly expands the musical language of Andy Martin: evolution is audible within every single recording. Tonally, rhythmically, and accent-wise, the release becomes a deep exploration of how personal experience transforms artistic signature, turning it into a new legacy for the local and global scene.

We see the author in a moment of artistic self-determination, on his path to international recognition. This is the sound of a master who cares about context, yet fundamentally refuses to meet outside expectations. At the core of TECH039 lies the concept of techno-futurism — sound projected forward, yet anchored in the fundamental laws of nature.

On the record: a transit from atmospheric harmonies and complex percussive structures to near-ambient variations, followed by gripping, mind-piercing sounds set against a functional bassline. This is a story of five distinct states, conceptually unified by a shared relation to the outer world, rather than the rigid boundaries of style.

- Mechanical Vals — fully positions the spirit of the record, referencing the incomparable signature of Andy Martin.
- The Paths of Rhythm — creates a rhythmic hypnotic structure, inviting DJs to uncover additional layers.
- Toltequidad – serves as a reminder that even the darkest night has its limits, and lighter hours inevitably arrive.

The integrity of the statement is completed by two interpretations:
- Vardae Reinterpretation — a reinterpretation deepening the original's hypnotic component.- Feral Reshape — a structural transformation emphasizing natural, organic power.

A substantial record for the collector’s archive and home listening, as well as a functional tool for the club night.

There are records that do not so much belong to an era as they pass through it, leaving traces rather than statements, circulating in the margins where function outweighs discourse. World Cup, written at the end of the 1990s by Kiko, emerged in precisely that way — as a techno track whose presence was felt less through promotion than through repetition, carried from booth to booth, absorbed into the working vocabulary of DJs who recognized in it something immediate and self-evident. Its architecture is minimal yet insistent, driven by tension and release, a form of clarity that resists ornament and instead privileges duration, pressure, and movement.

When it resurfaced in 2006, it did not return as a revision but as a continuation, reaffirming its role within the ecology of the dancefloor. The same internal logic remained intact, allowing it to re-enter circulation without friction, as though it had simply been waiting to be picked up again. In both instances, the track operates less as a fixed object than as a tool — something to be used, extended, and recontextualized in real time.

Bringing together these two versions alongside Tainted Life, the release traces a subtle but telling trajectory. If World Cupdefines a certain techno functionalism, Tainted Life reveals another dimension: a proto-Italo sensibility that gestures toward what would later coalesce as electroclash, not through stylistic declaration but through texture, tone, and attitude. Long absent from digital circulation and largely confined to obscurity, it appears here not as a rediscovery, but as a piece whose relevance has simply remained latent.

Nothing has been added, nothing has been altered beyond what was necessary to restore presence. The recordings are allowed to exist in their own continuity, detached from the temporal markers that might otherwise confine them.

The artwork, conceived by H5, extends this approach into the visual field. Its restraint is not aesthetic minimalism for its own sake, but a form of structural clarity, where composition and absence articulate a space in which the record can be encountered without interference, as if resurfacing from a parallel timeline that never fully closed.

How do losers dance? According to Helmut, almost weightlessly, with soft feet, warm gestures, sometimes alone, sometimes together. Content Creatures, Helmut's fourth album, evokes the pop archetype of the "beautiful loser", who had almost disappeared from view in so-called late capitalism. In a present in which even suffering is often similarly instrumentalised and tailored to clicks like a competitive sport, this album sets a counterpoint: those who listen to it suddenly want to be enchanting losers again, useless and joyfully messing up, losing something beloved, having their hearts broken, giving up a dream, sinking into beauty.
You don't sink alone. Comforting harmonies envelop you, the voices of friends appear, accompany you for a while and then disappear again. Warm grooves, floating synths and delicate guitar lines characterise an indie sound that remains open and breathes.
Self-produced for the first time in his home studio in Neukölln, 'Content Creatures' sounds thoughtful and light at the same time. The album will be released digitally and on vinyl on 10 April 2026 on Berlin-based label St.Vladimir. There are four songs on one side and four songs on the other. The cover is adorned with an exceptionally pretty guinea pig. Helmut shows the special in the seemingly ordinary: a child's pet, the most ordinary of all, is his cover star and headstrong protagonist.

Wie tanzen Verlierer? Wenn man nach Helmut geht, dann fast schwerelos, mit weichen Füßen, warmen Gesten, manchmal allein, manchmal gemeinsam. Content Creatures, Helmuts viertes Album, evoziert den Pop-Archetypus des "beautiful loser", der im sogenannten Spätkapitalismus fast aus dem Blick geraten war. In einer Gegenwart, in der sogar das Leid oft ähnlich durchinstrumentalisiert und auf Klicks getrimmt ist wie ein Leistungssport, setzt dieses Album einen Kontrapunkt: Wer es hört, möchte auf einmal gern wieder ein bezaubernder Verlierer sein, nutzlos und freudvoll abkacken, etwas Geliebtes verlieren, das Herz gebrochen bekommen, einen Traum aufgeben, in Schönheit versinken.
Man versinkt nicht allein. Tröstende Harmonien legen sich um einen, die Stimmen von Freundinnen tauchen auf, begleiten einen ein Stück weit und verschwinden wieder. Warme Grooves, schwebende Synths und feine Gitarrenlinien prägen einen Indie-Sound, der offen bleibt, atmet. Erstmals in seinem Neuköllner Homestudio selbst produziert, klingt "Content Creatures" bedacht und leicht zugleich.
Das Album erscheint digital und auf Vinyl am 10.04.2026 auf dem Berliner Label St.Vladimir. Es hat vier Songs auf der einen und vier Songs auf der anderen Seite. Das Cover ziert ein außergewöhnlich hübsches Meerschweinchen. Helmut zeigt das Besondere im scheinbar Gewöhnlichen: Ein Kinderhaustier, das normalste von allen, ist bei ihm Coverstar und eigensinnige Protagonistin.

Jacksonville returns with Heavy & Gold, a powerful five-track EP rooted in the raw energy of underground house and analog machine funk. Produced by Chris Lyth, the record blends Chicago-influenced drum programming, hypnotic basslines and deep melodic textures into a set of highly functional DJ cuts built for the dancefloor. The EP moves between muscular jack tracks and deeper hypnotic moments, balancing driving groove architecture with subtle emotional tension. Heavy & Gold opens with the title track, a dense and rolling house cut driven by heavy drums and warm synth layers, before Just Another High delivers a tighter, more stripped-down groove with classic underground swing. Rapido pushes the energy further with a direct, rhythmic workout built for peak-time transitions. On the flip side, Parallel Love expands into a deeper and more atmospheric territory with evolving textures and hypnotic momentum, while closing track Miz & Ida delivers a long, hypnotic groove combining analog warmth and late-night dancefloor pressure. True to the Skylax philosophy, this release focuses on timeless groove design rather than trends, offering DJs and collectors a record built to last in the bag for years. Written and produced by Chris Lyth with executive production by Hardrock Striker and artwork by H5 (Simon Renaud), Heavy & Gold continues the Skylax tradition of uncompromising underground house music.

In a world currently defined by unrest, uncertainty, and cultural fracture, acclaimed saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Isaiah Collier returns with Joy, a 5-track EP that reframes one of humanity’s most nuanced emotions both as a devotional grounding and political act.

Collier’s deeply personal compositions present joy as an act that isn’t rooted in escapism or abstraction, but rather, as something hard-won rooted in lived experience, shaped by transformation, and sustained through connection. Throughout the album’s five compositions, Collier positions joy as a guiding light during challenging times, an expression of challenging yourself to utilize your gifts, an affirmation of love and discovery, and as an affirmative source of reassurance.

“We are in a paradoxical time, where so much is being revealed to us,” Collier shares. “Everything feels political from every scope… our collective hearts feel the heaviness in the air. Yet I say to you all—don’t despair. For right now, the most political thing we can do is share joy.”

That ethos is made clear in the opening title track and lead single “Joy.” A pulsing rhythmic motif anchors the melody with a sense of both searching and certainty. Collier conceived the piece around 3 years ago reflecting on a time where many people in his life were experiencing loss of family and friends and experiencing profound life transitions. “Everything just felt like it was falling apart with no aim in sight,” he reflects. “Yet, there is a light at the end of it all.”

As he played the chords with a sense of urgency, he could feel the vibration of yellow in the piece. That initial triplet motif serves as the guiding light on the piano and the only word Collier could hear was Joy. In addition to Collier at the helm singing and playing piano and tenor sax on the track, it features an expansive 11-piece ensemble with a full horn and string section allowing Collier’s propensity for composition and arrangement to shine with an eclectic sonic palette.

“Landscape of Dreams” finds Collier serendipitously leaning into utilizing his gifts as a multi-instrumentalist. While he had a sketch of the piece going into the studio, a traffic delay caused musicians to be late arriving at the studio. Never one to waste time in the studio environment, Collier stepped into new creative territory and took up the challenge of executing playing all instruments himself as an act of trust and experimentation. “I’ve never done this before, and so it was a leap of faith for me,” he asserts. “I always dream of doing stuff like this, and being part of the small percentage of people who can do it like Prince, Steve Lacy, Frank Zappa, and Stevie Wonder. The end result finds Collier immersed in a hypnotic soundscape playing layered flutes, drums, Metatron, Wurlitzer, and auxiliary percussion.

Another layer of joy is revealed in “Where I’m Loved” that serves as a love letter and leaning into the process of stepping into the willingness to explore life and love with a partner. On the intimate meditation of vulnerability and connection, Collier's vocal prowess is on full display, exerting effortless falsetto reminiscent of D’Angelo over soulful Wurlitzer and guitar as he crosses over into more R&B-inspired realms. “I believe everyone deserves this feeling or to honor the memories of it. Furthermore, I believe you should also go where you’re celebrated and not tolerated.”

“When the Dust Settles” captures the electricity of live collaboration and Collier further steps out of being confined to any specific genre. He had just gotten a microKORG keyboard from co-producer Sonny Daze and was exploring the vast array of sounds on the instrument. Collier plays synth bass on the microKORG joined by the electrifying improvisation of Cole Runge on guitar and the combustible rhythm of his brother Jeremiah Collier on drums with additional post-production work from Sonny Daze.

The album’s final track “God’s By Your Side” reflects on perseverance and artistic legacy, directly inspired from the passing of D’Angelo, whose life’s work was a huge part of Collier’s childhood growing up in the late 90s and early 00s. With gospel flavor and direct influence both from D’Angelo’s vocal and instrumental arrangements, the track speaks to resilience and persistence in the face of obstacles—an affirmation of source and reassurance. “And what’s better than having God by your side, right?” asserts Collier.

Joy is a through-and-through expression of the arc of joy in its truest form. Joy transcends fleeting happiness and is conscious gratitude shaped by taking chances, leaning into your gifts, fostering community, and lived experiences.

“Joy is partially happiness,” Collier explains. “But to me it means happily being grateful for family, friends, lovers, teachers, and good times. These are the things that anchor us.”

The release of Joy comes off the heels of significant momentum for Collier, whose work continues to garner accolades and resonate across cultural spheres. He was featured on the cover of DownBeat’s April 2025 issue, where he was named “The Next Sax Giant,” and profiled on NPR’s Jazz Night in America for his ambitious 13-movement interdisciplinary suite The Story of 400 Years, that traces 400 years of Black American History. He released two full-length albums in 2024 with The World Is on Fire highlighted in The New York Times’ Fall Arts Preview and The Almighty named among the publication’s Best Jazz Albums of the year.

Beyond performance and recoding, Collier’s influence is recognized in broader cultural and intellectual spaces as he was the recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association’s 2025 Up and Coming Artist of the Year Award, the 2024 Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz, and was named a Steve Jobs Archive Fellow joining an elite cohort of the next generation of artistic visionaries through a yearlong program.

In addition to the release of Joy, Collier is touring his “Collier Plays Coltrane” program throughout 2026 in honor of John Coltrane’s centennial. Rather than presenting Coltrane’s expansive catalog as repertory, Collier approaches this music as something living, reshaping it in real-time with a sense of space and improvisational dialog reflecting both reverence to the past and present times.

Repress, Clear Orange Vinyl

Internationally acclaimed producer and DJ Tripmastaz is proud to announce the launch of his sublabel, Respect The Craft.Legacy, a heartfelt tribute to his early creative roots. Marking a significant milestone in his career, the first release on the new sublabel revisits and completes his unreleased projects from the early 2000s.

This series encapsulates an era of raw creativity and innovation, showcasing tracks that were originally started between 2000 and 2004. Until now, these works have remained unfinished and unheard—hidden gems from Tripmastaz’s studio archives. Through the new label, the producer has brought these ideas to life, meticulously completing each track while staying true to the essence of the time they were created.

The series bridges the past and present, blending the raw energy of the early 2000s with today’s refined production techniques. The debut release drops soon, promising a timeless tech & deep underground sound.

“This is a closure for me—an opportunity to honor my creative journey and give these tracks the life they deserve,” Tripmastaz explains. “The early 2000s were a formative period for me as an artist, and these records embody the passion and ideas that shaped my path. Completing and releasing them now feels like a full-circle moment.”

"There is a suspicion that no one really knows how to deal with the legacy of the past." — Siarhiej Kraŭčanka

Malenčyk / Lami is a double vinyl release pairing previously unpublished archival recordings of Belarusian fiddler Stanisłaŭ Malenčyk with a response to that archive by Italian sound artist Giovanni Lami.

Stanisłaŭ Malenčyk (1928–2007) was a self-taught fiddler from a small village in Western Biełaruś, born on land that was then Polish territory. He never studied music formally and never worked on a collective farm — he supported his family solely through playing, crafting his own violins and harmonicas by hand. The music he played was made for a community: weddings, christenings, a room full of people, a shared life. As life shifted toward the cities and the village dissolved, that music lost the only place it could exist. By the end of his life, Malenčyk — nearly blind — was playing for whoever happened to be there: at the local bazaar, on district buses, moving through the aisles. He simply couldn’t stay home. He had to play.

These recordings were made by ethnographer Mykoła Kozienka in Ščučyn in 1999 and have not been released until now.

Giovanni Lami approaches this archive from a distance that could hardly be greater — geographical, cultural, temporal.

Credits:

Record 1 (Side A/B) — performed by Stanisłaŭ Malenčyk,
recorded by Mykola Kozenka in Shuchyn, Grodno Region, Belarus in 1999.

Record 2 (Side C/D) — produced by Giovanni Lami.

Mastering by Siarhej Cviki and Anton Aniščanka

Archival research by Alaksej Krukoŭski and Alaksandr Baroŭski

Cover Artworks by Volha Savič
Cover design by Ihar Jukhnievič

Project curation by Anton Aniščanka
Project assistance by Alaksiej Šumakovič

Texts by Siarhei Kraŭčanka (essay, editing, translation),
Alaksej Krukoŭski and Alaksandr Baroŭski (Malenčyk biography),
Giovanni Lami (artist statement)

As often, it started with discovering a CD, leading to the depths of the Internet Archive. I still remember the excitement of going through B.L. Underwood's recordings for the first time and realising how unique his approach to electronic music was, every track had something powerful yet moving within it, as he could play around with genres and tempos yet carrying a very distinctive touch. After a short detective work to get in touch with the artist, and quite some time curating the content of this compilation (the hardest part by far), System Of Objects is proudly presenting the remastered version of 6 of his tracks that showcast B.L. Underwood talent and uniqueness.

XKatedral Anthology Series II (An Anthology Of Slowly Evolving Timbral Music), featuring exclusive music from Kali Malone, Jessica Ekomane, Mats Erlandsson, Theodor Kentros, Wilma Hultén, and Maria W Horn.

"XKatedral Anthology II is the second instalment in a series of archival releases dedicated to presenting music by composers affiliated with XKatedral working within the realm of slowly evolving harmonic and timbral music. This double-vinyl set contains an array of pieces dating from 2018 - 2020. This collection of pieces focuses on the use of synthetic sound and algorithmic composition languages as tools for precise work within the realm of spectral exploration. In addition to this, the electronic instrumentation in many of the pieces is augmented by acoustic instruments.

The first piece on side A is Kali Malone’s Music for Low Quartet. This piece is an adaptation of the composition “Rose Wreath Crown” originally released on The Sacrificial Code in 2019. In this iteration, the music is scored for two double basses played by Vilhelm Bromander and Zach Rowden, and sine tone electronics performed by Malone herself. The recording of this piece was made at EMS in 2019.

Closing side A is Jessica Ekomane’s ‘First Light’. This computer music piece focuses exclusively on digital sound, layering razor sharp synthetic textures into an otherworldly dynamic weave. The music heard here is a reworked version of a piece originally commissioned by Semibreve in 2020.

Side B contains the work ‘Hands Melt In The Sun’ by Mats Erlandsson. This composition is built from electronically processed tuned zithers and synthetically generated tones arranged in a series of chordal inversions over a sustained fundamental tone. This music, written as a love-letter to the localized drone tradition of Stockholm in the years 2008-2012, was composed and recorded in seven days while in residence at Ställbergs Gruva in Bergslagen, in the summer of 2018.

Opening the second half of the collection is Rough Draft v.7 by Theodor Kentros. Kentros’ compositional practice usually combines acoustic and electronic source material and in this piece he molds the sound of the Buchla 200 and a collection of recorded wind instruments into a molten mass of sound. In its original form, this music was presented as a multichannel immersive work and even in the current stereo configuration it retains some of that enveloping sense of depth.

The second piece on side B, Inertia, is by Wilma Hultén, who makes her debut on record here. An exclusively synthetic piece, Inertia utilizes internal digital feedback in a sealed synthetic system to manifest a harmonic field that swells and abates throughout the length of the piece, interspersed by small gestural elements.

Closing Anthology II is Maria W Horn's work ‘Dies Irae’ for female vocal quartet, pitched glass and synthesis. ‘Dies Irae’ uses a modified form of traditional tonal harmonic language to invoke an uncanny and restless middle ground between the classical western polyphonic vocal tradition and contemporary electronic music. The version heard here is a live recording from Eric Ericssonhallen in Stockholm on May 30th 2020. Performing the piece here are the vocalists Katarina Henryson, Lisa Holmgren, Vilma Ogenblad and Paula Wegmann, as well as Maria herself on glass and electronics."

Ubisoft and Laced Records have forged a new trade alliance, expanding their economic tree to bring the lavish music of Anno 117: Pax Romana to glorious vinyl.

This vinyl set celebrates the ornate score for Ubisoft's richly detailed city builder, capturing the spirit and splendour of the Roman Empire at its peak. From the beautiful heartland of Latium to the mysterious Celtic wetlands of Albion (where no civilized Roman wants to be), every musical cue is steeped in world-building and crafted with remarkable care.

The outer sleeve features striking landscape art from the game, while the inner sleeves present detailed track lists framed with ornate motifs inspired by Roman architecture and pattern work. The result is a set that feels like a treasure from the imperial archives.

The soundtrack charts a journey across the empire, weaving together atmospheric strings, ancient-inspired instrumentation, and sweeping orchestral cues that capture both the serenity of prosperous provinces and the political tensions throughout. The music reflects every choice you, the governor, must make. Diplomacy or domination, tradition or transformation. An emotionally rich and immersive soundtrack worthy of Rome itself.

Death Is Not The End collaborate with Uzbek label Maqom Soul to deliver an LP counterpart to last year's mixtape of the same title, compiling specially picked & fully licensed individual belters from the ex-soviet studios of Central Asian republics between 1978 and 1989 - incl. Uzbek, Tajik, Kurdish & Uyghur artists pulling traditional folk motifs together with pop & rock and psych elements.

"These recordings do not form a smooth or coherent history. They feel more like a sequence of discoveries made at different moments and in different circumstances. Songs and instrumental pieces that once lived inside specific contexts radio broadcasts, philharmonic programs, touring routes now sit side by side, revealing hidden connections as well as clear fractures between them.

Nasiba Abdullaeva appears here as a voice from the end of an era. Trained within a conservatory system, she worked inside the format of the Soviet pop song while filling it with melodic logic that did not come from Moscow or Leningrad. Her voice is soft and sustained, shaped by Eastern melisma, and it never functions as decoration. Even in tightly structured songs there is a sense of resistance, an effort to preserve a musical language rooted in Uzbek tradition rather than fully adapted to an all Union standard.

The ensemble Sintez, later renamed Navo, represents a different path. Beginning as a student rock group, the band was gradually absorbed into the official VIA system with all its limitations and compromises. Yet it was precisely within those boundaries that Sintez and Navo developed a recognizable sound. Electric guitars and jazz rock harmonies do not overpower the folk material but remain in tension with it. Their recordings feel like negotiations between what the musicians wanted to play and what they were allowed to perform.

The Tajik ensemble Gulshan reflects an institutional approach carried to a high professional level. Formed under television and radio structures, the group treated folk material almost as a written score. Carefully constructed arrangements, close attention to orchestration, and restrained use of pop techniques define their sound. There is less spontaneity here, but a strong sense of discipline and structure, where national melody becomes part of a carefully controlled sonic framework.

Koma Wetan occupies a very different space. Formed in the 1970s, this Kurdish rock group approached poetry and folklore as tools of cultural assertion. Their psychedelic rock never feels like a stylistic borrowing. Instead it functions as a contemporary vessel for language and themes that might otherwise have remained unheard. Even today these recordings sound fragile and stubborn at the same time.

The Uyghur ensemble Yashlik, closely connected to a musical drama theatre, operated somewhere between stage performance and popular music. Their songs are built on folk melodies but shaped for wide audiences. What emerges is a constant attempt to preserve the recognizability of Uyghur musical identity without freezing it in a folkloric frame. Yashlik's music exists in a state of balance between representation and development.

Digging Central Asia does not attempt to establish hierarchies or offer a single wayof listening. Names and dates matter less than the sound itself. Tape noise, abrupt transitions, and unexpected timbres remain part of the material rather than flaws to be corrected. This music existed at the crossroads of multiple routes geographic, cultural, and ideological. Heard today in a new context, it no longer feels peripheral. Instead it stands as a reminder that the history of popular music is far more fragmented, layered, and polyphonic than it is usually allowed to be."

Guests is the home recording project of Jessica Higgins and Matthew Walkerdine. Vaguely named as such to avoid any problems with the poster if they pull out of a gig (which has only happened once, about a year and half before any songs were actually written to be fair) but also to capture a sense of reverse hospitality. That is, arriving at your door with a bottle of good wine (can’t turn up empty handed) or a fist full of savoury or sweet snacks (time of day dependant); oversharing at the afters (and then passing out on your couch); reading to your toddler while you make their lunch or put everything back where it was meant to go (only to get torn apart again). So, something about what happens when private worlds meet each other, making or having been made a space for. But at times, it’s a different kind of intimacy, a temporal or material one, like the feeling of crisp fresh sheets, and abundant and soft, body-part appropriate towels in a hotel in a city you’ve been to before and love to go back to.

Their debut record, “I wish I was special”, was variously described as “a collage of concrète experiments and outerzone pop gestures, music that sounds as if it’s been written from the depths of a dream”; “music for people who love music but also hate it too”; “something like chasing ghosts or befriending a wild animal”; “pulling apart nervous sensations with haphazard ease and requisite humour”; and “a melody of refusal, of being all-in (…) finding the exact right WRONG sound to express the discontent”. Common Domestic Bird continues in this vein, layering synthesiser, keyboards and samples over rudimentary drum rhythms and field recordings, which are in turn sung or spoken with to create nine new songs.

Written and recorded between autumn 2024 and summer 2025 in Reading, Berkshire, the music has matured since its last outing, in a way, leaning less into collage and more toward structured composition and melodic depth, yet retains a healthy dose of indeterminacy and off-kilter rhythms for the forever-amateur. The songs on Common Domestic Bird hint at some “about”-ness through a series of discrete vignettes which sound a bit like architecture or end of year lists, gossip or over-thinking subjectivity, like disappearances and impressions, the support structure of the spine, letters and signs offs, things you could really do without and where they should go, hoping you’ll see something that isn’t there, pretences and performance. At times they feel kind of funny, others kind of sad or a bit angry and annoyed, a bit like you really.