Search:the voice

Active since 2001, Ayyuka was one of the first bands to look back at 70’s Turkish music to find a new voice. Not caught up in the Retromania but reincarnating Turkish Psychedelic within their own style, the band managed to develop an unmistakeable unique sound. Inspirations of Dick Dale, John Frusciante, and local heroes like Erkin Koray, Orhan Gencebay, make their music more guitar oriented but their fascination with film music and improvisation creates unexpected twists within their songs. Right after their eponymous debut in 2007, the band shared stage with Sonic Youth and Jonathan Richman. Heading to a completely instrumental music, their 3rd studio recording “Sömester” had already become a cult album for record collectors. They’ve collaborated with Orlando Julius, Ilhan Ersahin and had guests on almost every album. Their latest full length “Maslak Halayı” was a creative collaboration with Calibro35 genius Tommaso Colliva. The worldwide hype of "Yukadans” will now be followed by their upcoming EP "Zaman Ziyan”, showcasing four brand new instrumental tracks that will transport listeners through a kaleidoscope of musical landscapes, experimenting with techniques of music writing and flirting with genres like afro-beat, funk, dub or arabesque. Save the date for their very first performance of these, live at babylon, as a part of Akbank Jazz Festival.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Elizete Cardoso (1920-1990) was one of the best-known voices of Bossa Nova, enjoying considerable success and popularity in both Brazil and the entire Americas. In 1958, Vinicius de Moraes invited Cardoso to sing on an album featuring compositions he co- wrote with Antonio Carlos Jobim. The result, Cancao do Amor Demais, in its entirety - , one of her biggest selling albums and the earliest authentic Bossa Nova LP.

Svart Records are proud to release the long-awaited full length album "SÁLA" by Kati Rán in May 2024

If the most profound treasures are often the most deeply buried, the journey to uncover them is vital process of discovery. Five years after the 15-minute single “Blodbylgje” signaled the birth of a new, more primordial, and immersive vision after the dissolution of her band L.E.A.F., Nordic dark folk artist Kati Rán has expanded on its oceanic theme for her long-awaited full-length album, “SÁLA”. Embarking on a far-reaching musical and personal travelogue, it’s a reawakening of both the feminine narratives submerged and fragmented within Norse mythology, and the enduring, healing powers held within.

Named after the Old Norse word for ‘soul’ and ‘sea’, “SÁLA” is an act of ‘soul retrieval’, the shamanic art of trauma recovery, be it illness, death, heartbreak or loss, and the reintegration of a splintered self. Across its 13, wide-ranging, elegantly unfolding tracks, the album is an embodiment of different feminine voices and perspectives – from the Norse nine daughters of the sea, or ‘billow maidens’, through various historical and fictional figures to the late-night voices we hear in our most liminal states – all with tales to tell, riddles to solve, challenges to be accepted and guidance to offer. It’s a multiplicity that, like the ocean itself, belongs to a vast, restless dynamic: a matrix of mysteries, unfathomable depths and ever-shifting currents, accumulating into an elemental, regenerative source of power.

Recorded in a barn in Húsafell, Iceland – home to glacier ice caves and a rare lava stone marimba rediscovered for the track “Stone Pillars” – as well as Finland, Norway and at home in Kati’s native Netherlands, “SÁLA” is as much chronicle of Kati’s own perspective-shifting recording process as it as a pilgrimage through different viewpoints and internal states. That itinerate urge is also reflected in the use of different languages, ranging across Norwegian, Old Norse, Icelandic, and, for the first time, English, her combination of ancient texts, historical reimagining’s and unguarded personal reflection backed up by deep research into the most resonant recesses of Nordic lore.

Spun throughout every thread of “SÁLA” is a sense of communion - with the power of stories to offer moral guidance and the thrill of the unknown; with the element of water, recreated across the album both in field recordings and the agelessly organic nature of the music itself; with the archetypes whose qualities we are called upon to embody at our most critical moments; and with the internal hidden realms forever whispering at us from the far edges of our consciousness.

Appropriately, it’s a collaborative venture too. As well as working closely together with Finnish producer Jaani Peuhu, there are contributions from across the musical spectrum, including extreme metal vocalist extraordinaire Gaahl, the Icelandic female choir Umbra Ensemble, renowned Norwegian jazz musician Karl Seglem, Björk and Brian Eno contrabassist Borgar Magnason, members of pagan folk acts Völuspá, Gealdýr, Heilung and Theodor Bastard and even Napalm Death’s Mitch Harris on vocals.

For all the many sources “SÁLA” draws from, the result is a singular, intimately transformative rite of passage, and a retuning of the heart to the reverent continuity of the sacred. It will take you from the opening title track’s chest-pounding rhythmic pulse emerging from a traditional Norwegian bukkehorn (recorded by Karl Seglem), a galloping horse-rider and Kati’s glacial, velveteen chant, through “Kólga’s” recounting of female persecution through the ages borne on the most gossamer-light yet unbreakable of timbres and “Stone Pillar’s” gently percolating, deep wells of abandonment and incantations to recovery. “SÁLA” closes with the track “Sátta” - Old Norse for ‘peace’ and ‘reconciliation’ – ending the album as it began with the bukkehorn, as it weaves rich drones and experience-stamped poems and prayers, Kati’s vocals the most sensitively tuned of emotional barometers. An album made in dedication, and in thrall to, its own sense of destiny, “SÁLA” is, as all quests must ultimately be, a homecoming.

Album introduction written by Jonathan Selzer.

Svart Records are proud to release the long-awaited full length album "SÁLA" by Kati Rán in May 2024

If the most profound treasures are often the most deeply buried, the journey to uncover them is vital process of discovery. Five years after the 15-minute single “Blodbylgje” signaled the birth of a new, more primordial, and immersive vision after the dissolution of her band L.E.A.F., Nordic dark folk artist Kati Rán has expanded on its oceanic theme for her long-awaited full-length album, “SÁLA”. Embarking on a far-reaching musical and personal travelogue, it’s a reawakening of both the feminine narratives submerged and fragmented within Norse mythology, and the enduring, healing powers held within.

Named after the Old Norse word for ‘soul’ and ‘sea’, “SÁLA” is an act of ‘soul retrieval’, the shamanic art of trauma recovery, be it illness, death, heartbreak or loss, and the reintegration of a splintered self. Across its 13, wide-ranging, elegantly unfolding tracks, the album is an embodiment of different feminine voices and perspectives – from the Norse nine daughters of the sea, or ‘billow maidens’, through various historical and fictional figures to the late-night voices we hear in our most liminal states – all with tales to tell, riddles to solve, challenges to be accepted and guidance to offer. It’s a multiplicity that, like the ocean itself, belongs to a vast, restless dynamic: a matrix of mysteries, unfathomable depths and ever-shifting currents, accumulating into an elemental, regenerative source of power.

Recorded in a barn in Húsafell, Iceland – home to glacier ice caves and a rare lava stone marimba rediscovered for the track “Stone Pillars” – as well as Finland, Norway and at home in Kati’s native Netherlands, “SÁLA” is as much chronicle of Kati’s own perspective-shifting recording process as it as a pilgrimage through different viewpoints and internal states. That itinerate urge is also reflected in the use of different languages, ranging across Norwegian, Old Norse, Icelandic, and, for the first time, English, her combination of ancient texts, historical reimagining’s and unguarded personal reflection backed up by deep research into the most resonant recesses of Nordic lore.

Spun throughout every thread of “SÁLA” is a sense of communion - with the power of stories to offer moral guidance and the thrill of the unknown; with the element of water, recreated across the album both in field recordings and the agelessly organic nature of the music itself; with the archetypes whose qualities we are called upon to embody at our most critical moments; and with the internal hidden realms forever whispering at us from the far edges of our consciousness.

Appropriately, it’s a collaborative venture too. As well as working closely together with Finnish producer Jaani Peuhu, there are contributions from across the musical spectrum, including extreme metal vocalist extraordinaire Gaahl, the Icelandic female choir Umbra Ensemble, renowned Norwegian jazz musician Karl Seglem, Björk and Brian Eno contrabassist Borgar Magnason, members of pagan folk acts Völuspá, Gealdýr, Heilung and Theodor Bastard and even Napalm Death’s Mitch Harris on vocals.

For all the many sources “SÁLA” draws from, the result is a singular, intimately transformative rite of passage, and a retuning of the heart to the reverent continuity of the sacred. It will take you from the opening title track’s chest-pounding rhythmic pulse emerging from a traditional Norwegian bukkehorn (recorded by Karl Seglem), a galloping horse-rider and Kati’s glacial, velveteen chant, through “Kólga’s” recounting of female persecution through the ages borne on the most gossamer-light yet unbreakable of timbres and “Stone Pillar’s” gently percolating, deep wells of abandonment and incantations to recovery. “SÁLA” closes with the track “Sátta” - Old Norse for ‘peace’ and ‘reconciliation’ – ending the album as it began with the bukkehorn, as it weaves rich drones and experience-stamped poems and prayers, Kati’s vocals the most sensitively tuned of emotional barometers. An album made in dedication, and in thrall to, its own sense of destiny, “SÁLA” is, as all quests must ultimately be, a homecoming.

Album introduction written by Jonathan Selzer.

Deluxe 180g vinyl. Art Edition LP includes set of six 12”x12” art cards.



The follow-up to Kee Avil's acclaimed 2022 debut Crease: "A stunning debut" (The Quietus); "A whiplash style of uninhibited exploration" (The Wire); "Kee Avil's debut is a force" (Foxy Digitalis); "A work of Frankensteinian wonder" (Electronic Sound); "A tightly coiled, finely wrought vision of avant-pop" (Exclaim); "A debut of fiendish creativity" (Bandcamp Album Of The Day / Albums Of The Year) Kee Avil's music is both adventurous and intimate, intellectually challenging and emotionally resonant. The Montréal guitarist and producer's 2022 debut LP Crease garnered plaudits from outlets like The Wire, The Quietus, Mojo and Foxy Digitalis, picking up a Canadian Juno Award nomination and Bandcamp Album Of The Day and Albums Of The Year along the way. Its intricate construction, unnerving atmospheres, and knife-edge take on avant-pop prompted comparisons to early PJ Harvey, This Heat, and Gazelle Twin. A remix EP with work by claire rousay, Ami Dang, Cecile Believe, and Pelada brought collaborative perspectives to four Crease tracks, offering new pathways within those songs. With Spine, Kee Avil strips back her heavily textured compositions, opening up a much rawer sound. She calls it folk… and while traditionalists might scoff, this is urgent music that reflects the precarity of modern life, as well as the jarring mixture of electronic and real-world interactions that have become the fabric of our day-to-day experiences. There's a hypnotic post-punk somnambulance to it all, using the repetition and fracturing of melodic phrases interwoven with delicate electronics to create curious and persistent hooks. While not a concept album, themes of time's passage, remembrance, and decay crop up across multiple tracks. Each track intentionally only has four elements - guitar, electronics, and two other instruments, with Kee's voice and guitar pushed to the front. Within this minimalist framework, the juxtaposition of beauty and discomfort that is key to the Kee Avil sound stands out in skin-prickling relief. "We're shaped by many versions of ourselves," says Avil. "I was looking back at these versions of myself and what could have been, what didn't end up being and what did end up being, and going back like that through time. Seeing the future, the past." Spine was written in Kee Avil's home studio after a lapse in writing while touring Crease and working on other projects. She is a well-known and respected member of the Montréal experimental scene, and formerly ran Concrete Sound Studio with Zach Scholes, who continues to work with her as a producer on Spine. Compared to the three years that went into making her debut, Spine emerged in a matter of months - a process that may also be a factor in its intensity and sharpness: "This record was much harder, like it was really discovering everything from scratch." In her desire to not simply replicate or extend the sound of Crease, she felt she had to rip up the rule book, write in a different way, and pare back songs against her usual instincts. Sometimes, when we work against our ingrained habits, we get to the core of who we really are. Spine is an exercise in that process. Without over-intellectualizing or being didactic, it hits immediately and emotionally, especially if you are a person who has spent much time in the process of self-examination. Kee's voice hisses, whispers, and chants; her guitar bends and rings; electronics skitter and crackle; violin creaks like a door in the wind. There is something so evocative about the atmospheres she creates that it's easy to overlay one's own feelings onto her work, but to do that wholly would be to overlook one of the most important things about Spine: Kee Avil's clear and thoughtful vision. This isn't just the next step forward in her artistic trajectory; it's a stunner of a record that stands on its own, a bracing and thrilling listen that has much to reveal about the contradictions inherent in being human. - jj skolnik

With Lucifer, Kompakt presents an album of rare beauty from two masters of modern music. A family affair, it’s a collaboration between the Italian father-and-son duo of Luciano Michelini and Lorenzo Dada, whose combined histories bring to Lucifer a depth of experience alongside clarity of vision and a finely tuned, neatly developed combined compositional voice. A lovely, beguiling suite of music that combines the electronic and the acoustic, the urban and the pastoral, its gorgeous night-eye vision and tender melancholy sits neatly within the Kompakt universe, while offering the curious listener some rich new perspectives.

There is already plenty to know both artists by. Lorenzo Dada creates across multiple fields – a techno producer and DJ who has already worked with the likes of Jay Haze, Fete, Leo Benassi, and Der, he’s released a small clutch of stylish, smartly designed EPs, and a solo album, Second Life (2018). His complementary background in classical music and composition informs his ensemble project, Tears Of Blue (who appear on Lucifer), where Dada paints with neo-classical tones for a quartet of violin, viola, cello and grand piano, supplemented by electronics for live performance.

Luciano Michelini’s history is yet richer. He may be best known, to many, for his piece “Frolic”, the theme to Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm series; it was also sampled by Snoop Dogg for 2022’s “Crip Ya Enthusiasm”. But there’s much more to Michelini’s story. A successful soundtrack composer, Michelini both studied and taught at the Conservatoro di Santa Cecilia, and worked for RCA from the sixties to the eighties; his soundtracks from this period are gorgeous examples of the form, particularly his work for Il Decamerone Nero (1972), L’Isola Degli Uomini Pesce (1979), and the devastatingly gorgeous Dimensione Donna (1977).

In the eighties, Michelini and his wife Anna Gutling founded the Electronic Music Division studio and academy in Rome, which is where the majority of Lucifer was recorded. Dada reflects on the experience: “We never worked together before, so it was all new for both of us,” with Michelini adding, “I truly love this experience with my son. He’s a talented pianist and composer. I am not very familiar with electronic music nowadays, but we did it fluently.” There’s certainly a familial energy at play through Lucifer, and you can hear how Dada and Michelini, through exploration and experiment, find a shared language, balancing Dada’s tendency toward minimalism, and Michelini’s composerly voice.

Lucifer flows as a suite that interweaves electronic music with acoustic instruments: the lonely sigh of saxophone; Michelini’s lush, verdant piano; the weeping strings of Tears Of Blue (recorded at the studio of Michelini’s friend, the late Maestro, Ennio Morricone). These multiple voices are located within the electronic sighs and swarms from Dada’s kit; there are moments of propulsion, and passages of lambent drift, where the album revels in its tonal sweetness. If it flows so effortlessly, that’s because Lucifer was designed that way, as a suite or a sonata of sorts.

And the title? Dada reflects, “Lucifer was an angel who decided not to be one anymore. The miracle of life is that we can decide what we want to be, even if we are born as angels or vice versa.” This feels somehow apposite: there’s certainly something of the transformative, and the transportive, in Lucifer, a unique family collaboration of rare poetry and sensitivity, where two generations meet in the modern crucible that is the electronic music studio.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first vinyl reissue of Trancedance, a wild slice of Swedish Afro-fusion from Christer Bothén, originally released in 1984. A major figure in Swedish jazz and improvised music since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet and tenor sax, Bothen studied doso n’koni (the large six-stringed ‘hunter’s harp’ of the Wasulu) in Mali in 1971-2 before turning to the guinbri (the three-stringed lute of the Gnawa/Gnauoua) in Marakesh later in the decade. In between, he performed extensively with Don Cherry during his Organic Music Society period and taught Cherry the doso n’koni. In the later 70s and 80s he worked with the most important figures in the distinctive Swedish jazz-rock-world fusion scene, joining Archimedes Badkar for their African-influenced Tre and participating in Bengt Berger’s legendary Bitter Funeral Beer Band. Many of the musicians who played on the Bitter Funeral Beer Band’s ECM LP (including Berger on drums, Anita Livstrand on voice and percussion and Tord Bengstsson on piano, violin and guitar) joined Bothén for one of the sessions that produced Trancedance, the first release under his own name, dedicated to his compositions. The other session introduced his seven-piece group Bolon Bata, heard on the second track of each side. The title track opens the album with the rubbery buzzing strings of the doso n’goni playing a hypnotic ten beat pattern, soon joined by bass and piano before the entire nine-piece group kicks in with a rollicking Afro-jazz workout, Berger’s drums driving an intricate, winding melodic line played by the horns with Mattias Helden’s cello throwing in pizzicato slides and smears. Bothén then takes centre stage on tenor sax, soloing with a wide, vibrating tone and moving seamlessly from soaring melodies to guttural stutters. After a return to the composed horn lines and a solo from Elsie Petrén on alto sax, the piece builds to an ecstatic conclusion of yelping voices and handclaps, gradually simmering down to return to the solo doso n’koni where it began.

The hypnotic sounds of the hunter’s harp carries over to ‘Mimouna’, where it is joined by Bothen’s overdubbed guinbri. The piece develops into a haunting whispered and sung invocation, gradually building momentum until the organic textures of strings, voices, and hand percussion are ruptured by Lennart Söderlund’s distorted guitar, which brings an unmistakable touch of 1984 to the otherwise timeless sound. Joined by chicken scratch guitar and increasingly dominated by the insistent clang of three of Bolon Bata’s members on karqab (a kind of cast-iron castanet), the grove develops frenetically.

The B side opens with the multi-part epic ‘9+10 Moving Pictures for the Ear’, at over 16 minutes the record’s longest piece. Though Bothen is heard only on horns on this piece, the hypnotic repeating bass line carries on the first side’s link to African musical traditions. Using an expanded 16-piece ensemble, the music balances untethered improvisation with carefully arranged passages of knotty ensemble playing that at points suggest Mingus, Moacir Santos or some of the ambitious post-free work being done in the same years by figures like David Murray or Henry Threadgill. The piece ends with a triumphant passage of looping unison melody reminiscent of the Scandinavian folk explorations of Arbete och Fritid (whose Kjell Westling is heard on bass clarinet and soprano sax here). The sound of Bjorn Lundqvist’s fretless bass introduces the odd left turn made by the record’s final track, a spaced-out expedition into bluesy horn lines and distant guitar atmospherics set to a semi-reggae beat, perfumed by the core Bolon Bata group and bearing the appropriate title of ‘The Horizon Stroller’. A must for fans of the Swedish scene around groups like Arbete och Fritid and Archimedes Badkar, as well as any listener who has been seduced by Louis Moholo’s Spirits Rejoice!, The Brotherhood of Breath, or, more recently, the guinbri grooves of Natural Information Society, Trancedance is a lost classic ripe for rediscovery.

Pål Waaktaar-Savoy has explained that much of the atmosphere and the lyrical themes of Savoy’s seventh album “Under” are drawn from his move with his fellow songwriter and wife Lauren Savoy to Los Angeles, where they found themselves surrounded by loneliness.

Waaktaar-Savoy is one of the most prolific and impressive songwriters of the twentieth century and beyond, and having been working at the very top of the music industry for as long as he has, it is no surprise that the record is well-crafted. The production is good, with careful arrangements and instrumentation. Every instrument’s voice is given room and there is space in the mix. Only occasionally does this slip over into over-production, as with the treated strings on the opening track “Lonely Surfer” or the treatment of Lauren’s vocals, which sound overly processed.

It is also true that the record exhibits a fair measure of melancholy. The chords and melody lines are dark in places, and there is a hint of sadness in the lyrics, many of which have a retrospective quality, describing moments in the past. However, beyond this, the understated feel of the record is just that – understated. Many of songs feel a few RPM too slow and the delivery of the vocal lines too underplayed to give them any emotional authority. At times, it also seems like the arrangement has to step in to bolster the songwriting or lyrics, by filling space with strings or brass, or the counterpoint of the instrumentation on “Camden Palace Chronicles” which distracts from some fairly mediocre words. It is important to emphasise that this is a joint songwriting exercise for Pål and Lauren, so we should not compare the output to the work of a-ha, but still, the themes lean in the direction of suburban banality, far from Pål’s more oblique or allegorical writing.

There are other moments of real quality beyond the production and arrangement. The title track has an excellent Bowie-esque chorus (and there are echoes of his work and sound throughout, along with Beatles and Beck), “The Life and Times of a Wannabe” has some first-rate guitar work on it, edgy riffs and some good textures. Likewise, “Coming Down”, which also exemplifies Frode Unneland’s drumming on the record, which is generally prominent in the mix, and with good reason, as it carries the record along well.

Pål Waaktaar-Savoy has explained that much of the atmosphere and the lyrical themes of Savoy’s seventh album “Under” are drawn from his move with his fellow songwriter and wife Lauren Savoy to Los Angeles, where they found themselves surrounded by loneliness.

Waaktaar-Savoy is one of the most prolific and impressive songwriters of the twentieth century and beyond, and having been working at the very top of the music industry for as long as he has, it is no surprise that the record is well-crafted. The production is good, with careful arrangements and instrumentation. Every instrument’s voice is given room and there is space in the mix. Only occasionally does this slip over into over-production, as with the treated strings on the opening track “Lonely Surfer” or the treatment of Lauren’s vocals, which sound overly processed.

It is also true that the record exhibits a fair measure of melancholy. The chords and melody lines are dark in places, and there is a hint of sadness in the lyrics, many of which have a retrospective quality, describing moments in the past. However, beyond this, the understated feel of the record is just that – understated. Many of songs feel a few RPM too slow and the delivery of the vocal lines too underplayed to give them any emotional authority. At times, it also seems like the arrangement has to step in to bolster the songwriting or lyrics, by filling space with strings or brass, or the counterpoint of the instrumentation on “Camden Palace Chronicles” which distracts from some fairly mediocre words. It is important to emphasise that this is a joint songwriting exercise for Pål and Lauren, so we should not compare the output to the work of a-ha, but still, the themes lean in the direction of suburban banality, far from Pål’s more oblique or allegorical writing.

There are other moments of real quality beyond the production and arrangement. The title track has an excellent Bowie-esque chorus (and there are echoes of his work and sound throughout, along with Beatles and Beck), “The Life and Times of a Wannabe” has some first-rate guitar work on it, edgy riffs and some good textures. Likewise, “Coming Down”, which also exemplifies Frode Unneland’s drumming on the record, which is generally prominent in the mix, and with good reason, as it carries the record along well.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Rami Gabriel has been a motive force in rock n' roll, jazz, Arabic, and experimental music communities across North America for over twenty years. In that time, he has released numerous projects across genres and under many names. On his debut LP for Sooper Records, Rami trips all the breakers. In his own name and voice for the first time, That's what I been sayin' is not so much a debut as a conflagration in Rami Gabriel's worldly underground. Drawing on Punk, Krautrock, Dub, No Wave, and lo- fi, the territory occupied by That's what I been sayin' is astringent, minimal, and buzzing with the sound of machines dancing in the wind. "I'm used to putting out records based on genre," says Rami of his multiple endeavors. "I was listening to one of the `70s Brian Eno records where he took his experimental work and his songs and put it all together, and I was thinking, `Why don't I try to put all the different ways I've been working for the last couple years onto one record?'" That's what I been sayin' ignites this vision with an album that ranges from the motorik-driven krautrock of "Like a monk" to the unexpected trance-like pairing of "Buzuq synth." That's what I been sayin' is a furnace of Rami's insuppressible impulses, where he undertakes to ask and answer: what is left of punk but making do with what is at hand? At times direct and scorching, at others meditative and wandering, That's what I been sayin' compresses Rami's understanding as a composer, musician, and singer into a restless, 11-track love letter to the underground. For Fans of The Fall, Haruomi Hosono, Brian Eno, and Scientist.

In the Merry Month of May is the final studio recording of the late, great Tony Conrad, and the first duo release with Jennifer Walshe, one of Conrad"s most important collaborators in the final decade of his life. A wild, improvisatory flaying of song; the sheer sonic force recalls the ecstatic charge of Conrad"s Slapping Pythagoras, with Walshe"s clarion voice at the heart of it. A one-of-a-kind concoction whipped up by two fearless and often peerless souls. It"s a joy to hear their manifest mutual regard and commitment to busting a gut.

"Bloom is the 1997 album by Crustation, who were formed by Ian Dark, Stig Manley and Mark Tayler. All three were quiet connected in the fertile Bristol trip hop community - they played in bands with Portishead's Adrian Utley during the Eighties and regularly hung out with Massive Attack and Smith & Mighty. With just one album, their debut full-length record Bloom, Crustation became a legendary secret in the galaxy of trip hop music. The charming female voice of Bronagh Slevin, spacey, dreamy atmospheres, sleepy beats: all we love in downtempo music. The album features artwork co-designed by Stanley Donwood, who has created all the artwork designs for Radiohead with Tom Yorke. For the first time since its original release, Bloom is being reissued and is available as a limited edition of 750 copies on translucent purple coloured vinyl. The vinyl package includes an insert."

Bloom by Crustation With Bronagh Slevin, released 23 May 2024, includes the following tracks: "Close My Eyes ", "Reverie ", "Falling ", "Life As One " and more.

This version of Bloom comes as a 1xLP in a(n) Deluxe Sleeve packaging. This release comes with (a) Insert(s).

Belgian industrial, post-rock collective THOT have announced their forthcoming fourth full-length album, `Delta', set for release in May 2024. A band existing in constant flux, THOT seem to thrive in the tumult of modern life and `Delta', their first long form release since 2017's breathtaking `FLEUVE', is an even more ambitious musical melting pot of the people, places, spaces and times that have helped define the band to date. Written, arranged, recorded and documented between late 2019 and 2023 by Fray alongside THOT collaborators Lukas Melville, Gil Chevingné, Stéphane Fedele, Anaïs Elba, Michael Thiel and Juliette Mauduit; `Delta' is as much a product of the band's past as it is their present, also featuring a true collaboration with the women of `Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares', an iconic Bulgarian traditional polyphonic choir previously sampled by THOT as well as the voice of award-winning Czech singer-songwriter Lenka Dusilová, who Fray met by chance through friends on the road. The album is a shifting collage of people, places, past and present, all stirred by THOT's renowned grasp of cinematic, post-rock dynamics and cold-wave electronic orchestration. Boundary-breaking by nature, THOT delivered a powerful, post-rock document of hope and perseverance against all odds.

Belgian industrial, post-rock collective THOT have announced their forthcoming fourth full-length album, `Delta', set for release in May 2024. A band existing in constant flux, THOT seem to thrive in the tumult of modern life and `Delta', their first long form release since 2017's breathtaking `FLEUVE', is an even more ambitious musical melting pot of the people, places, spaces and times that have helped define the band to date. Written, arranged, recorded and documented between late 2019 and 2023 by Fray alongside THOT collaborators Lukas Melville, Gil Chevingné, Stéphane Fedele, Anaïs Elba, Michael Thiel and Juliette Mauduit; `Delta' is as much a product of the band's past as it is their present, also featuring a true collaboration with the women of `Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares', an iconic Bulgarian traditional polyphonic choir previously sampled by THOT as well as the voice of award-winning Czech singer-songwriter Lenka Dusilová, who Fray met by chance through friends on the road. The album is a shifting collage of people, places, past and present, all stirred by THOT's renowned grasp of cinematic, post-rock dynamics and cold-wave electronic orchestration. Boundary-breaking by nature, THOT delivered a powerful, post-rock document of hope and perseverance against all odds.

2024 Repress

AADJA's debut on trip.

* Vocals courtesy of the late great Jamaican singer Creation Stepper aka Willy Stepper, whose voice graced many a 70’s roots reggae classic such as `Kill Nebuchadnezzar’ and `Homeward Bound’.
* `Rockfort Rock’ was originally released on Youth and Alex Patterson’s WAU! Mr Modo label in 1989 and was mixed and produced by Teamworks and Sound Iration (Nick Manasseh and Scruff).

repress !

Four years after Nuova Napoli, Nu Genea are back with Bar Mediterraneo, a new album and journey, which projects the sounds of the Neapolitan duo formed by Massimo Di Lena and Lucio Aquilina even further.

Nu Genea's Bar Mediterraneo is an idea of a shared place where people meet and fuse together; a space that leaves its doors open to travellers and their lives, always exposed to the whims of fate. Some of this can be experienced through the multitude of sounds that come together in the tracks, layers of different acoustic instruments, voices and synthesizers merging in a unique musical blend.

Opening up to the voices of many different people, separated by languages but united by the sea and the music, Nu Genea's hometown, Napoli, becomes a true place of encounter.

You can hear this all along. In "Gelbi", a gorgeously deep and propulsive Ney flute plunges into murky waters of the melancholic Tunisian dialect sung by Marzouk Mejri. In "Marechia'", unbridled happiness and sun ooze from the delicate vocals of Célia Kameni and create an acrobatic bridge between French and Neapolitan language. In "Straniero", your soul is arrested from the moment the slow spell-binding mandolin ignites the hypnotic patterns recorded by the legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen. In "Bar Mediterraneo", the title track, bittersweet guitar’s riffs, analog waves and choirs are overwhelming the song giving you what you would like to hear on a boat trip along the Amalfi Coast.

Nu Genea couldn't afford to overlook their firmly anchored roots into the Neapolitan culture and its dialect with "Tienaté", where the power of neapolitan language (interpreted by Fabiana Martone) supports those quarter-tone strings and the uncessant folk-disco groove that spreads to the entire song. In "Praja Magia", repetitive mandolin riffs lead the song, giving space to a choral yet tight vocal line that speaks of Varcaturo, a village close to Napoli. In "Rire", a volley of poetic, deceptively laidback, lyrical fury interpreted by Sicilian Marco Castello intimately combines with a highly musical, multi-textured instrumental backbone and the swoon of a chanson in its heart. In "La Crisi'', the lyrics of a Raffaele Viviani’s poem from 1930 have been adapted to a laidback jazz-funk groove in full NG style. In "Vesuvio", revaluing the evocative verses and powerful mantra of Vesuvio, Nu Genea re-adapted to the dancefloor a folk song by the working-class band E’ Zezi from Pomigliano D'Arco, combining the voices of a school choir with Jupiter-6 arpeggios and bold percussions.

Bar Mediterraneo is the place where people constantly return to transform curiosity into participation, tradition into sharing, unfamiliar into familiar. When travellers come through its “doors”, carrying their treasures of words and emotions, they aren’t strangers any more. They take part in a shared experience, enriching themselves and others by leading to unexpected musical journeys.

Chelsea Wolfe has always been a conduit for a powerful energy, and while she has demonstrated a capacity to channel that somber beauty into a variety of forms, her gift as a songwriter is never more apparent than when she strips her songs down to a few key components. As a result, her solemn majesty and ominous elegance are more potent than ever on Birth of Violence.

There is a core element to Chelsea Wolfe’s music—a kind of urgent spin on America’s desolation blues—that’s existed throughout the entirety of her career. At the center, there has always been Wolfe’s woeful longing and beguiling gravity, though the framework for compositions has continuously evolved based on whatever resources were available. Her austere beginnings were gradually bolstered by electronics and filled out with full-band arrangements. The music became increasingly dense and more centered around live performances. Her latest album, Birth of Violence, is a return to the reclusive nature of her earlier recordings

“I’ve been in a state of constant motion for the past eight years or so; touring, moving, playing new stages, exploring new places and meeting new people—an incredible time of learning and growing as a musician and performer,” Wolfe says of the era leading up to Birth of Violence. “But after awhile, I was beginning to lose a part of myself. I needed to take some time away from the road to get my head straight, to learn to take better care of myself, and to write and record as much as I can while I have ‘Mercury in my hands,’ as a wise friend put it.“ Birth of Violence is the result of this step out of the limelight. The songs stem from humble beginnings—little more than Wolfe’s voice and her Taylor acoustic guitar. Her longtime musical collaborator Ben Chisholm recorded the songs on a makeshift studio and helped fill them out with his modern production treatments and the occasional auxiliary flourish from ongoing contributors Jess Gowrie (drums) and Ezra Buchla (viola).

The album opens with “The Mother Road,” a harrowing ode to Route 66 that immediately addresses Wolfe’s metaphoric white line fever. It explains the nature of the record—the impact of countless miles and perpetual exhaustion—and the desire to find the road back home, back to one’s roots. Songs like “Deranged for Rock & Roll” and “Highway” offers parallel examinations on the trials and tribulations of her journeys while the ghostly “When Anger Turns to Honey” serves as a rebuttal to self-appointed judges.

While the record touches upon tradition, it also exists in the present, addressing modern tragedies such as school shootings in the minor-key lullaby “Little Grave” and the poisoning of the planet on the dark wind-swept ballad “Erde.” But the record is at its most poignant when Wolfe withdraws into her own world of enigmatic and elusive autobiography. Much like Alan Ginsberg’s hallucinatory long-form poem Howl, the tracks “Dirt Universe” and “Birth of Violence” weave together specific references from her past into an esoteric overview of the state of mankind. Though the lyrical minutiae remain secret, the overall power of the language and delivery is bound to haunt the listener with both its grace and tension.

“These songs came to me in a whirlwind and I knew I needed to record them soon, and also really needed a break from the road,” Wolfe says. “I’ve spent the past few years looking for the feeling of home; looking for places that felt like home. The result of that humble approach yields Wolfe’s most devastating work to date.

European Headline tour confirming now for 2020. UK/EU Publicity handled by Lauren Barley at Rarely Unable. Immense support from Press, including coverage with NPR, Pitchfork, FADER, Vice, Revolver, Decibel, Under The Radar.

Horace Andy a.k.a.Sleepy must process one of the sweetest and most distinctive voices in reggae music. 1951 in Kingston Jamaica. He cut his first track in 1966 for producer George ‘Phil’ Pratt, a tune called ‘Black Man’s Country’. But it was four years later his star really began to shine when he joined the stable of Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd’s Studio One. It was Coxsone Dodd who renamed him Andy after another of his leading artists Bob Andy, such was his belief in Horace’s writing talent and singing abilities. Still only twenty years of age Horace used his falsetto talent to the fore and cut some impressive tracks at 13 Brentford Road, Studio One’s headquarters. Such reggae standards as ’Skylarking’, ‘Just Say Who’, ‘Love of a Women’ and ‘Something on my Mind’ to name but a few. The early 1970’s saw Horace due to political reasons move on to work with producer Bunny Lee, a move that suited his talents and beliefs, Horace being an early advocate to the Rastafarian faith.The tracks which he cut with Bunny, which we concentrate on here gave his songs a rootsy feel. The rhythms often cut at Channel ONE and Randy’s Studio17 and finalised at King Tubby’s, provided a fine backbone for Horace to recut some of his earlier classics, along side his newer songs also to become reggae standards. Like ‘Money Money’, ‘Zion Gate’ the great ‘You are my Angel’ and a version of The Heptones ‘My Guiding Star’. The power of these recordings were such that the earlier tracks like ‘Skylarking’ became hits a second time around.Proving that the ‘you can’t keep a good tune down’ mantra was alive and kicking… …A golden time for Horace and Reggae music in general… Horace would go on to work with other producers like Everton Da Silva in 1977 creating the ‘In the Light’ album and the New York based Lloyd ‘Wackies’ Barnes in the 1980’s for his ‘Dancehall Style’ recordings. Most recently his work with Massive Attack has brought his majestic voice full circle and back into the arena once more. Those ‘Massive’ recordings and this dub collection here seem to fit side by side. Horace’s distinctive vocal riding over the rhythms adding a magic as only he can .....

RESPECT JAH FLOYD.

Limited black vinyl. Full colour sleeve with unseen pics of Ron Geesin in his studio doing maths stuff on the back.
Wow! So you’re telling me Ron Geesin made this kooky electro groovy score to a really progressive maths educational programme on Central TV in 1980 and it’s musically anarchic and amazing and it’s never been issued before? Until now. Wow again!!!! And there’s 30 tracks!!! Trunk Records we love you...
Basic Maths was the second educational TV Series for the Midlands-based ITV station for which I composed, played and recorded all music and noises. The first series, also for budding mathematicians in the 7-10 age group, was Leapfrog in 1978 produced by ATV (Associated Television): Basic Maths was for the newly-formed Central Television, the work spanning 1980-1981; both series were of twenty-eight parts.
The most worthy idea for both of these series was to project mathematics into life by means mainly of non-verbal sound and vision, with both animated and live action films, linked by two presenters, Fred Harris and Mary Waterhouse. In my role as Media Composer, I had had quite enough of voice overs, therefore music well under, so this fairly radical educational approach at the time encouraged my creative juices to run unhindered. Of course the sound had to do something with the picture and not just use it as a carrier for peacock display. It had to duet, play with and explain the visual content using novel and engaging techniques, so this involved the usual and sometimes intricate mathematical calculations which constantly exercised my already reasonable school maths.

Temples of Jura is proud to present ‘The Great Beyond’, the ninth studio album from Ilija Rudman. The concept of the album is the afterlife with words from Nikola Tesla, Slavoj Zizek, Jim Morrison, JF Kennedy, Charles De Gaulle, WH Auden, Azar Nafisi and Eleanor Roosevelt woven together to tell the story of ‘The Great Beyond’ and what may lie ahead for us all. The voice itself was created by Ai (let’s call him ERIC) and is set beautifully to music that has a timeless cinematic quality. Ilija only uses pure Analogue equipment in the creation of his music, resulting in a rich tapestry of basses, drums, chords and lead sounds. He’s been a prolific producer for over 20 years now with a discography that runs deep with more than 100 Vinyl EP releases and 8 studio albums, but we feel he’s reached the pinnacle with this concept album. We’ll leave the final word to ERIC “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”

Late Night Load Out is the debut LP from Dublin five piece band Papa Romeo.

The release is a collection of work which catalogues their first two years of rehearsing and gigging together around Ireland, a process which has forged their sound. The tracks journey through sound palettes which variously touch on dreamy spaced out indie rock, moments of ambient contemporary jazz, and rougher post-punk influenced sounds.

The ‘Late Night Load Out’, became the term to describe loading gear out of venues late at night after a show, which is a moment to both dread and cherish, the (sometimes) hard work which follows elation.

Now primarily based in London, Papa Romeo’s music has connected with London based DJs and broadcasters. Their debut single ‘Yellow Magic Orchestra’ was supported by Flo on NTS, as well as Avalon Emerson, and appeared as the A1 on a vinyl compilation from All City Records Dublin. Singles from ‘Late Night Load Out’ have also gained early support on BBC 6 Music and from Ross Allen on NTS.

In the meantime the band have been busy on the Irish circuit with appearances at Cork Jazz Festival, Other Voices, All Together Now and Another Love Story, as well as repeat sold out shows at Dublin’s Sugar Club. They have built a reputation as a versatile band who can bring the energy to a packed room, and were named an Artist to Watch for 2024 by Hot Press Magazine.

‘Late Night Load Out’ will be released on digital and vinyl in May 2024.

Papa Romeo is Paddy Rogers, Mark Rogers, Dan Coyne, Rob de Boer and Chris Wong.

Radio Support:

Ross Allen - Soup to Nuts NTS

Colleen Cosmo Murphy - NTS

Lauren Laverne - BBC 6 Music

Esk - Rinse FM

District Magazine (Ireland)

Peter Curtin - RTE

New Music Fix on BBC 6Music

Bill Brewster

* The long awaited follow-up to `Dub from the Heart Part 2’ which was released 26 years ago.
Good things come to those who wait.
* A modern venture into raw dub-wise territory with weighty sub bass-lines built for sound system and annoying the neighbours.
* Featuring the voices of Ranking Joe, Jah Mason, Hughie Izachaar and Martin Luther King Jr.

Manchester’s multifarious sound organiser Andrew Hargreaves (Tape Loop Orchestra, The Boats, Beppu) channels key touchstones of Glenn Branca’s microtonal minimalism, the paranormal, and DIY amateur broadcasting with some of his most enigmatic, intuitive recordings to date.

‘Drones In The Air’ finds Hargreaves deep in a new phase of vibrational investigation where the sentimentality of prior eras gives way to more abstract conceptual processes. Utilising a bunch of oscillators and the Lyra-8, an “organismic analog synthesiser”, plus pedals, Hargreaves works within just intonation tuning systems - or more precisely “intuitive intonation” - to just-about harness a microtonal flux of clashing, beating frequencies, but the project is more about ceding a certain amount of freedom to the machines and allowing aural alchemy to occur, prompting a spectrum of harmonic colours and rich timbral overtones distinguished from previous tape loop-based works.

Comparative to “Glenn Branca’s micro-tonal workouts if he had worked with oscillators instead of guitars”, the result also variously evoke mysteries of The Conet Project, the oceanic feel of Éliane Radigue compositions, and early ambient works by Terre Thaemlitz in their sound sensitivity and scope. In ‘The Sun is Afraid’ he mesmerises with glistening microtones that develop a coarser traction, interrupted by shortwave radio comms and resolving into phantasmic noise gauze that speaks to his long-standing fascinations with entropic decay and the sounds between sounds. ‘Your Hands Are Shaking’ follows with a stealthier approach to coaxing a hallucinatory drone mass inflated by ether voices and thickening up into a sinister gloam redolent of NWW’s ’Soliloquy for Lilith’.

Red Creek's debut release, The Raging River, is a seamless continuation of the writing process and the creative mindset that has guided Cult of Luna for the last couple of years. "The Raging River" feels more like a bridge. A midpoint that needs to be crossed so we can finish what we started with "A Dawn To Fear". It's a seamless continuation of the writing process and the creative mindset that has guided us for the last couple of years. It's been an interesting as well as an introspective way of working, having our instinct leading the way and then having to figure out where it takes us. But not only has it been a linear journey, some aspects of it is clearly circular. We have been a fan of Mark Lanegan for many years. So in 2005 when we wrote the song "And With Her Came The Birds" we had his voice in mind and the working title was "The Lanegan Song". But we were not many years over 20 and our lack of self-confidence prevented us from even daring to ask. It took fifteen years for us to get the guts to ask him. Hearing his voice on "Inside Of A Dream" is nothing more than feeling that we're inside of a dream. Johannes Persson

"Imagine: It’s sometime in the back half of the 19th century, America. You’re sitting in the parlor of your mansion, or in the only room of your shack; things are dusty and smell like sweat and hair, no matter how wealthy you may be. You don’t own a phonograph, and you don’t know who Tony Hawk is, but you have an inkling of how good the word 'shred' is going to feel when it enters the local slang. Suddenly, a tall, elegant figure with beautifully maintained fingernails emerges from some corner of the room, carrying a guitar. He says in a soft voice, 'I have a transmission for you, from the coming few centuries. Would you like to hear it? I figured you wouldn’t have a dongle, so I brought my guitar.' You may be apprehensive, but you shouldn’t be. Shane happens to be an internationally renowned virtuoso of the guitar. Specifically, he’s the kind of virtuoso who is as deep on style as he is on technique. His technical prowess is almost maddeningly complete; aiming paradoxically for the yards-long target called “breadth” he’s somehow hit all of it, 500 arrows piercing every pore of the landscape. He has that much technique not for the sake of guitar worship but to best bring the music forth clearly and in his own hand, like a pearl formed in a specific sea. I know this because I’ve sat next to him in multiple countries and American states and seen him deliver transmissions of that extreme honesty, with that extreme capability. Like Derek Bailey’s 'Ballads,' this record brings you into the room and the breath of a true musician whose mastery does not overshadow his appreciation of the music that inspired it. The title, 'Repertoire,' underscores the beautiful songs he chose to perform, all standards of 20th century musical excellence. The in-time persistence of his blues-walked 'Lonely Woman.' The grand registral descent he performs on 'Pithecanthropus Erectus,' like a rare document of the trip down from Everest. Dig how 'Better Get Hit in Your Soul,' emphasizes the folk blues water coursing through Mingus’s Ellingtonia, how Aphex Twin’s 'Avril 14' and the Minutemen’s 'Cohesion' sound so much older than Cage’s 'Totem Ancestors.' 'Repertoire' puts forth the idea that time is arrangement: time and arrangement are each only as successful as they are faithful to their origins and expansive in their style. Again, lest you fear the alien smoothness some associate with the concept 'virtuoso,' remember here we’re dealing with a time- traveler. His virtuosity is home grown, born of human work rather than some abstract or divine touch; the aim is not to go beyond the realm of human technical possibility but to expand it in the direction of human, meaning, timely. This guy can play anything, and for you, for this record, which sounds intimate and as present as a transmission from a time-traveler, he chooses to."—Wendy Eisenberg

By now one of our most cherished and respected portuguese songwriters, Maria Reis has been steadily creating a legacy that will undoubtedly endure in the portuguese songwriting canon for years to come. Co-founder of the Lisbon based Cafetra label- collective, Reis spent her teenage years honing her craft, particularly with her co- leading role on Pega Monstro with her sister Júlia Reis, with albums like 'Alfarroba' and 'Casa de Cima' on Upset !the Rhythm and whose indefinite hiatus since 2018 opened the gateway for a prolific solo venture. After a raw debut EP released in 2017 – Maria -, 2019 saw the release of the celebrated 'Chove na Sala, Água nos Olhos', a definitive statement of Reis' almost casual gift of painting vivid and impressionistic portraits of everyday life, conveying all the anger, resignation and melancholic joy of moving on. Two years later, following a string of widely praised live appearances, Reis records the 'Flor da Urtiga' EP with musical production of Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear, a sweeter affair, crossed by a witty irony that tackles such subjects as family, love and toxic masculinity, through layered acoustic guitars, lightweight percussion and joyful harmonies. 'Benefício da Dúvida' from 2022, strips back most of the production to rely on simple but affirmative arrangements assembled with the help of her sister Júlia and longtime collaborator Leonardo Bindilatti.

And now, almost two years on the clock after 'Benefício da Dúvida', Maria Reis returns with a newfound maturity with 'Suspiro...' - Portuguese for sigh. Created in close collaboration with Tomé Silva - a young and versatile musician and producer who's been recently leaving a mark on the portuguese scene - and recorded in the intimacy of the latter's bedroom, 'Suspiro...' doesn't cut ties with that recent past but reflects the learning process embedded in previous ventures in its lyrics and arrangements, towards song's eternity. A projection of different emotional states and physical spaces throughout these years, 'Suspiro...' carries in the apparent simplicity of its title the plurality of meanings found in such a natural act, from anger to being in love, from resignation to resilience. Life in a sigh? We've been further from that.

An attentive and sensitive observer of both intimate and surrounding spaces, Maria Reis continues to explore wordplay in her very personal manner, a poetic act as brutally honest as filled with imagery allusions, enchanting the mundane with lyricism. Touched by a resigned and dreamy melancholy, 'Suspiro...' settles, for the most part, on electric and acoustic guitar lines, simple but expressive rhythms, floating vocal harmonies and a voice almost tangible in the way it conveys memorable hooks without fear of appearing both fragile and tenacious. 'Amor Serpente's low key tragedy turned mantra for life, the blissed pop of 'Estagnação' or 'T-shirt', 'Holofote's flailing rawness, the mesmerizing sparkle of 'Pico', 'Meta Data's electrified energy or the playful keyboards and sound effects of 'Coisas do Passado' composing a lively portrait of reality and expectations where we can all see ourselves reflected in. For Maria, almost a second nature, that through all her honesty, know how and imagination, reaches a new life with 'Suspiro...'.

For more than twenty years, Ka Baird has explored the outer dimensions of sound through performance. Extending far beyond their roots in the psychedelic folk movement of the early aughts, Ka is known for their raw, boundary pushing solo performances that bridge experimental sound, performance art, and ritual. Their tool set in the live arena includes extended voice and microphone techniques, electronics, flute and piano. Bearings follows their 2017 debut Sapropelic Pycnic and Respires, their acclaimed 2019 album.

Initially conceived as a twenty minute composition and presentation commissioned by Lampo in Chicago in the spring of 2022, Ka first explored the concept of “bearings” through a series of intimate performances where they shifted guises between magician, shaman, clown, and athlete, all enduring ongoing states of groundlessness through a physically demanding performance that entailed both play and struggle. This piece, in tandem with the heaviness of caring for a dying parent during the subsequent year, laid the groundwork for Bearings, with the album’s final narrative structure revealing itself in the months after their mother’s death the following September.

Enlisting a cast of contributors including Andrew Bernstein (alto saxophone), Max Eilbacher (flute processing, electronics), Greg Fox (percussion), gabby fluke-mogul (violin), Henry Fraser (contrabass), Joanna Mattrey (viola), John McCowen (contra clarinet), Camilla Padgitt-Coles (bowls, waterphone) Troy Schafer (strings), Chris Williams (trumpet), Nate Wooley (trumpet), and their beloved cat, Nisa (purrs) to create a collective hum and thrum, Ka and company create sprawling minimalist densities, punctuated by abrupt starts and stops, complex harmonics and textures, percussive flourishes, and a single, cyclical lyrical phrase: “Here. Disappear. Poof!”

Ka considers the album to be a deviant nod to a song cycle, throughout which certain motifs are repeated in different configurations. In the album’s sonic lexicon, a trumpet blast signifies a birth or death, or a distant string motif denotes a memory. Bearings is a durational work of profound abstraction and focus, within which sonorous elements, structure, and meaning reach a single, unified form. This amounts to nothing short of a creative high-water mark for one of the most dynamic and uncompromising artists working in the landscape of music today.

"Miranda Winters, as the voice of Chicago’s much-loved noisemakers Melkbelly, has spent the past few years happily in her own shadow. While she has quietly written and occasionally released her own music for 15 years, Winters finally steps out into the bright light with the release of Lawn Girl, the debut album under her Mandy moniker.

The album, a combination of older songs and newer creations, feels positively and endearingly alive–like a freeing of pent-up energy, an intimate rebuilding of the self. While Winters recorded and produced a number of the songs herself, she worked with Taylor Hales at Electrical Audio to feed those songs back into the studio, where they were re-recorded with room mics and worked back into the original versions. “I see it like photocopying,” she says of the process. “I’ve always loved working with photocopying and related printing techniques in my visual art because of the way everything decays and falls apart. It was nice to honor that on the record.”

Performed by an all-women band–Linda Sherman (guitar), Lizz Smith (bass) and Wendy Zeldin (drums)–the songs on Lawn Girl suitably find Winters ruminating on the idea of femininity; about her mom (who graces the album cover) and being a mother herself; her female friends; and what it means and what is required to make art and music in a female space intentionally."

"It's time. Africa, it's time. It's time that Africa changes. It's time our leaders change. Everything that happens in Africa is extraordinary. We have everything: water, earth, sun, fields of oil, gas. We have all this in Africa, but Africa is still poor. It's time we change our way of thinking. It's time for Africans to take their destiny into their own hands. If not, others will take it." This is the message instrumental guitarist Tidiane Thiam hopes to convey with his new solo album, Africa Yontii, a Pulaar title that translates to "Africa Time." To a casual listener, Thiam's bold statement starkly contrasts with his melodic playing. But a closer listen to Thiam's expressive playing reveals a thoughtful voice that stands out from the crop of contemporary guitarists. "What I should be singing (with words) I'm instead saying with my guitar," he says. Hailing from the sleepy fishing Senegalese fishing town of Podor, home of the great Baaba Maal, Thiam taught himself guitar by playing along to late-night radio broadcasts of Manding music. He soon developed his style, often reworking Pulaar folk themes into his compositions. On Africa Yontii, Thiam's third album for Sahel Sounds, he teamed up with hip-hop beat maker Ndiaye Moctar from studio M.N. Records to provide accompaniment, integrating unexpected elements such as field recordings and electronic sounds. In the liner notes for Africa Yontii, Thiam voices his concerns about the lack of opportunities for Africa's youth and the lonely road that can come with leaving behind loved ones in the hope of a better life. He also sprinkles in a philosophical query about the eroding state of the world alongside two more hopeful, traditional offerings in the form of wedding and river songs. Despite the sometimes heavy subject matter, Thiam's love for his homeland and heritage shines through. Tidiane Thiam's Africa Yontii reclaims the maligned "world music" genre within a sonic space that has long been dominated by others telling the story. As the title suggests - It's time!

Jules Archive is a project founded by Marco Marzuoli and Marco Mazzei in 2016.

By employing various technologies, instruments, and approaches, the duo strives to craft a mysterious and fantastical persona named Jules. Through this persona, they aim to immerse listeners in a dreamlike atmosphere, transcending reality and dwelling in imaginary spatiotemporal dimensions.

Platonic Tales is the second chapter of Jules' journeys, more anthropocentric than the first album Adventures & Explorations (Volume 1), but equally exotic and dreamlike. The musical intention of this record was to rework a set of five (plus one) melodic tape loops, already structured in "song form”, through detailed arrangements. The treatment followed an experimental-pop-oriented production approach.

Recorded entirely at home by the artists, the music on the album features analog cassettes containing loops dating back to around 2016. The remaining arrangements were composed during the 2020 pandemic lockdown.

Several international guests collaborated on the album:

Lino Capra Vaccina, the legendary Italian percussionist/minimalist composer, and Jefre Cantu Ledesma engaged in a musical dialogue on An Ontological Novel.

Andrew Weathers contributed his voice to the tracks A Superior Truth and Exodus.

Christina Vantouz participated in Exodus and concluded the album with a string composition arranged and conducted by Minna Choi, performed by Magik*Magik Orchestra.

Recorded between Città Sant' Angelo (Pescara - Italy, 2016-2020), Francavilla (Chieti - Italy, 2020), and Firenze (2019-2020).

With love from Northern Europe...
Erotic Mondo's hidden treasure!
Long-awaited analog reissue of two Monica Lassen album titles

A woman erotic work produced in Japan with the setting of "A work created for the enjoyment of men and women by a Swedish female musician named Monika Lassen, who is also active as a sexual psychologist.''

Mondo's hidden treasure.
This is a rare and unusual record, with sounds that overlap with the dazzling sounds of jazz, rock, lounge, psych, etc.

The sequel was released one year after the previous work ‘Woman’ was well received. It's an erotic Japanese groove that knows no bounds, with more moaning voices than the previous work, heavy fuzz guitar, piercing organ, and sexy scat!


A total concept album consisting of the same song at the beginning and end of both sides.

As the "Interstellar Cosmic Blues" half of this EP, we consider these songs to be some of the best that we've produced. Songs that could all be "singles" all on their own. And they better be because "The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes" brought some savage riffage of their own! Put it all together with amazing artwork by Mirkow Gastow and release it on Heavy Psych Sounds, the BEST record label on the planet... and you've got all the makings of a great record! A modern classic right out of the box. Dig it!

Royal Blue Vinyl, limited to 350 copies. As the "Interstellar Cosmic Blues" half of this EP, we consider these songs to be some of the best that we've produced. Songs that could all be "singles" all on their own. And they better be because "The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes" brought some savage riffage of their own! Put it all together with amazing artwork by Mirkow Gastow and release it on Heavy Psych Sounds, the BEST record label on the planet... and you've got all the makings of a great record! A modern classic right out of the box. Dig it!

Maximum vocal power and prime time dramatics by Chrissy and Carrie Wilds. The San Francisco based DJ and producer shows his stylistic versatility and technical capability to work with vocals, melodies and sound sources. Like a facsimile of the late 1980s house/freestyle record that you never owned, Things Can’t Go On Like This Forever ticks all the right boxes. Heartfelt vocals (by the great Carrie Wilds): check! Timely social message: check! Melodic euphoria: check! Old school house and true school freestyle flavor: check! Comes in various mixes and with a freestyle bonus beat special.

Additional airtime is given to the now classic Chrissy production So I Go Dancing. Done in a traditional remix fashion by Gerd Janson it highlights all the features of the original and again Carrie‘s enchanting voice, extends the included hysteria and adds a few snare rolls. Let‘s go dancing to brighten the darkness. Dance music in its purest and maybe most US-American form.

Halocline - a visible layer of water that forms between saltwater and freshwater when there is a rapid change in salinity; they are found in colder oceans, caves, fjords and estuaries.

Malin Lewis is a queer bagpiper, fiddler, instrument maker and award winning composer. One of Scotland's most exciting innovators, Malin melds west coast tradition with a newly invented, self-made bagpipe. Hair tingling, philosophical and dance inducing melodies inspired by European folk traditions, humans, queerness and the universe. Having played in Canada, Europe and across the UK, Malin will release their long awaited debut album Halocline on the 3rd May 2024 with Hudson Records. Halocline began as a New Voices commission for Celtic Connections and was premiered to a sold out Strathclyde Suite, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2023.

"I saw my first Halocline aged fourteen whilst swimming in an estuary in the Isle of Skye. I didn't know what it was at the time but the image has stayed with me ever since. Appearing like a hazy layer of cloud under the water; it floats between two worlds and provides an environment which is home to a unique microbial ecosystem. As a trans person I live in a space in between; this beautiful space between a binary with its own colourful and unique culture."

Malin's unique sound is born from the deep connection that comes with making and composing for their own instrument. Alongside whistle and fiddle, Malin plays a newly invented two octave bagpipe that, when combined with guitar FX pedals, creates a whole new world of sound which is as lively, thought provoking and sensitive.

Halocline - a visible layer of water that forms between saltwater and freshwater when there is a rapid change in salinity; they are found in colder oceans, caves, fjords and estuaries.

Malin Lewis is a queer bagpiper, fiddler, instrument maker and award winning composer. One of Scotland's most exciting innovators, Malin melds west coast tradition with a newly invented, self-made bagpipe. Hair tingling, philosophical and dance inducing melodies inspired by European folk traditions, humans, queerness and the universe. Having played in Canada, Europe and across the UK, Malin will release their long awaited debut album Halocline on the 3rd May 2024 with Hudson Records. Halocline began as a New Voices commission for Celtic Connections and was premiered to a sold out Strathclyde Suite, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2023.

"I saw my first Halocline aged fourteen whilst swimming in an estuary in the Isle of Skye. I didn't know what it was at the time but the image has stayed with me ever since. Appearing like a hazy layer of cloud under the water; it floats between two worlds and provides an environment which is home to a unique microbial ecosystem. As a trans person I live in a space in between; this beautiful space between a binary with its own colourful and unique culture."

Malin's unique sound is born from the deep connection that comes with making and composing for their own instrument. Alongside whistle and fiddle, Malin plays a newly invented two octave bagpipe that, when combined with guitar FX pedals, creates a whole new world of sound which is as lively, thought provoking and sensitive.

With "In The Mood For Life", Wax Tailor's third album composed between Paris and New York, Wax Tailor creates an organic fresco with orchestral accents which reconciles more than ever the groove of hip-hop and the melodies of pop.

As a true craftsman of sound, Wax Tailor shapes his music at his own pace, favoring work and quality over productivism. In just 4 years his music has seduced thanks to its authenticity. We find there his sound signature, his taste for melancholic melodies mixed with the energy of Hip Hop. Here, soul, jazz, funk coexist, but also, more surprisingly, 60's pop, as evidenced by this attachment to short formats where the essentials are said in a few minutes. With the collaborations of Charlie Winston or Charlotte Savary to name a few, let's bet that this new opus will make you melt like a wax statue in full sun.