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Metaphon is pleased to present this première edition, which brings together a near-complete collection of the acousmatic works of Liliane Donskoy, recorded in the 1970s and 1980s.

Liliane Donskoy (*1933) is a French, classically trained pianist, music teacher, and composer of both instrumental and acousmatic music. She began her musical training at an early age, undertaking private piano studies with Yves Nat at the age of thirteen, shortly after the Second World War. During the 1960s and 1970s, she pursued advanced studies with prominent figures of twentieth-century music, including Darius Milhaud, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer, and Guy Reibel, and participated in courses led by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, and Iannis Xenakis.

Despite this extensive and diverse training, Donskoy encountered limited institutional and professional opportunities to fully realize her artistic vision. A decisive turning point occurred in 1977, when she gained access to the facilities of the Institute of Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music (IPEM) in Ghent. There, she realized and completed the majority of her acousmatic compositions.

Donskoy’s oeuvre is characterized by a high degree of structural complexity, precision, and expressive intensity. Her work reflects a pronounced and distinctive artistic temperament, manifested through a rigorous exploration of sound material and form. Notwithstanding its artistic significance, her music has remained largely unknown, as her compositions were neither widely circulated nor formally released, leading to their relative obscurity until the present publication.

Metaphon is pleased to present this première edition, which brings together a near-complete collection of the acousmatic works of Liliane Donskoy, recorded in the 1970s and 1980s.

Liliane Donskoy (*1933) is a French, classically trained pianist, music teacher, and composer of both instrumental and acousmatic music. She began her musical training at an early age, undertaking private piano studies with Yves Nat at the age of thirteen, shortly after the Second World War. During the 1960s and 1970s, she pursued advanced studies with prominent figures of twentieth-century music, including Darius Milhaud, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer, and Guy Reibel, and participated in courses led by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, and Iannis Xenakis.

Despite this extensive and diverse training, Donskoy encountered limited institutional and professional opportunities to fully realize her artistic vision. A decisive turning point occurred in 1977, when she gained access to the facilities of the Institute of Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music (IPEM) in Ghent. There, she realized and completed the majority of her acousmatic compositions.

Donskoy’s oeuvre is characterized by a high degree of structural complexity, precision, and expressive intensity. Her work reflects a pronounced and distinctive artistic temperament, manifested through a rigorous exploration of sound material and form. Notwithstanding its artistic significance, her music has remained largely unknown, as her compositions were neither widely circulated nor formally released, leading to their relative obscurity until the present publication.

Wired was an ephemeral improvisational music project formed by Michael Ranta, Karl-Heinz Böttner, and Mike Lewis. On 28 April 1970, the trio recorded an extended studio session of approximately 140 minutes, in collaboration with Conny Plank, who engineered and mixed the recording in real time, incorporating elements of live electronics. This session was subsequently edited to album length and released in 1974 as part of the Free Improvisation 3LP box set issued by Deutsche Grammophon, alongside recordings by Iskra and New Phonic Art.

Owing to its exploratory electric sound world and Plank’s distinctive spatial production techniques, the Wired recording acquired a degree of underground cult status, particularly among listeners associated with krautrock and psychedelic improvisation.

Shortly after the studio session, Ranta and Böttner travelled to Japan, where they spent approximately six months performing with Karlheinz Stockhausen at Expo ’70 in Osaka. In addition to these activities, they engaged in various independent musical projects and performances.

The present release, sourced from the personal archive of Michael Ranta, documents a live duo performance by Ranta and Böttner, recorded on 27 July 1970 in an outdoor setting in Kyoto (the exact location remains unknown), before an audience of approximately 200 music teachers. The recording exhibits sonic and aesthetic characteristics closely aligned with the previously recorded studio material, retaining the distinctive “Wired” sound while situating it within a live, site-specific context.

Michael Ranta: percussion, voice, home-made instruments, tapes, tape delay, effects Karl-Heinz Böttner: guitar, organ, ocarina, voice, effects

Dass Death Of Lovers das Potenzial für mehr als ihre bislang einzige EP "Buried Under A World Of Roses" haben, war schon 2014 bei der Veröffentlichung unverkennbar. Die Frage war eher, wann kommt die Band aus Philadelphia, die seitdem mehr oder weniger permanent auf Tour ist, endlich dazu, ihr erstes Album aufzunehmen? "The Acrobat" besticht mit glitzernden Shoegaze-Gitarren, wavigen Rhythmen und konzentrierten, durchdachten und atemberaubend schönen Melodien. Die Stücke zeichnen sich durch eine einladende Komplexität und Tiefe aus, die Stimmung ist immer funkelnd und spannend und bietet einen schönen Kontrast zu den ehrlichen und dunklen Texten. "The Acrobat" erreicht eine warme Vertrautheit und klingt doch völlig neu. Und obwohl die Titel leicht aus dem Soundtrack zu jedem Lieblingsfilme der 80er-Jahre stammen könnten, gibt es eine neue Perspektive und eine Weiterentwicklung, die das "Post-Punk"-Reglement neu schreibt.

Dass Death Of Lovers das Potenzial für mehr als ihre bislang einzige EP "Buried Under A World Of Roses" haben, war schon 2014 bei der Veröffentlichung unverkennbar. Die Frage war eher, wann kommt die Band aus Philadelphia, die seitdem mehr oder weniger permanent auf Tour ist, endlich dazu, ihr erstes Album aufzunehmen? "The Acrobat" besticht mit glitzernden Shoegaze-Gitarren, wavigen Rhythmen und konzentrierten, durchdachten und atemberaubend schönen Melodien. Die Stücke zeichnen sich durch eine einladende Komplexität und Tiefe aus, die Stimmung ist immer funkelnd und spannend und bietet einen schönen Kontrast zu den ehrlichen und dunklen Texten. "The Acrobat" erreicht eine warme Vertrautheit und klingt doch völlig neu. Und obwohl die Titel leicht aus dem Soundtrack zu jedem Lieblingsfilme der 80er-Jahre stammen könnten, gibt es eine neue Perspektive und eine Weiterentwicklung, die das "Post-Punk"-Reglement neu schreibt.

Carve is the second full-length by Bay Area artist Kathryn Mohr. Written over the course of five years and recorded over several weeks in a rural singlewide in the Mojave Desert, the album centers on love experienced as a form of grief, not as an aftermath of loss, but as a condition of intimacy itself.

Mohr describes Carve as an album about how memory exists outside the body, embedded in places and landscapes. It is shaped by her first return to the American Southwest since a childhood road trip at age five, and by the experience of moving through terrain that holds emotional weight long after its origins fade. The record considers how intimacy feels after years of isolation, and what it takes to carve out a life that allows for trust, presence, and feeling rather than mere survival. The project took form after a difficult tour that ended in Joshua Tree. Mohr pointed her car into the desert and drove alone, crisscrossing the Mojave on dirt roads. Months later, she returned to record the album, working alone with an acoustic guitar, a field recorder, and limited supplies. Following that period, Mohr began to allow for intimacy and connection. The time she spent recording Carve in the desert did not create isolation so much as mirror it. Working alone out of an old, western-themed jail Airbnb, the physical enclosure reflected the emotional conditions under which much of the record had been written: distance, restraint, and long stretches of stillness. In that context, love was not experienced as escape, but as something inseparable from impermanence and the awareness of loss.

This tension between connection and inevitability sits at the center of Carve. Some of the album’s songs were written earlier, during a prolonged period marked by emotional distance and apathy. Over those four years, Mohr was working through unprocessed childhood memories and their long-term effects on her ability to connect with others. The work was slow and difficult, involving a fundamental reshaping of how she related to herself and to the world. Carve was mixed by Richard Chowenhill of Flenser labelmates Agriculture. Rather than offering resolution, the album documents the act of remaining present within tension. Carve is not about escaping grief, but about accepting it as inseparable from love itself. Kathryn Mohr’s previous effort “Waiting Room” received the coveted ‘Best New Music' designation and a score of 8.4 from Pitchfork.

Carve is the second full-length by Bay Area artist Kathryn Mohr. Written over the course of five years and recorded over several weeks in a rural singlewide in the Mojave Desert, the album centers on love experienced as a form of grief, not as an aftermath of loss, but as a condition of intimacy itself.

Mohr describes Carve as an album about how memory exists outside the body, embedded in places and landscapes. It is shaped by her first return to the American Southwest since a childhood road trip at age five, and by the experience of moving through terrain that holds emotional weight long after its origins fade. The record considers how intimacy feels after years of isolation, and what it takes to carve out a life that allows for trust, presence, and feeling rather than mere survival. The project took form after a difficult tour that ended in Joshua Tree. Mohr pointed her car into the desert and drove alone, crisscrossing the Mojave on dirt roads. Months later, she returned to record the album, working alone with an acoustic guitar, a field recorder, and limited supplies. Following that period, Mohr began to allow for intimacy and connection. The time she spent recording Carve in the desert did not create isolation so much as mirror it. Working alone out of an old, western-themed jail Airbnb, the physical enclosure reflected the emotional conditions under which much of the record had been written: distance, restraint, and long stretches of stillness. In that context, love was not experienced as escape, but as something inseparable from impermanence and the awareness of loss.

This tension between connection and inevitability sits at the center of Carve. Some of the album’s songs were written earlier, during a prolonged period marked by emotional distance and apathy. Over those four years, Mohr was working through unprocessed childhood memories and their long-term effects on her ability to connect with others. The work was slow and difficult, involving a fundamental reshaping of how she related to herself and to the world. Carve was mixed by Richard Chowenhill of Flenser labelmates Agriculture. Rather than offering resolution, the album documents the act of remaining present within tension. Carve is not about escaping grief, but about accepting it as inseparable from love itself. Kathryn Mohr’s previous effort “Waiting Room” received the coveted ‘Best New Music' designation and a score of 8.4 from Pitchfork.

Odisea is the new album, actually the real debut from Los Retros, out in April on Stones Throw. It draws inspiration from 1980s Japanese City Pop, and marks a new creative chapter from Mauri Tapia shaped by growth, reflection, and renewed purpose. It's been a journey since Tapia first captured hearts with the lo-fi magic of "Someone To Spend Time With", recorded at the age of 17 on a humble four-track in his parents' living room. Now 25, the Oxnard native has stepped into an entirely new season of life - he married his high school sweetheart, became a father to two daughters, and embraced spiritual faith. Earlier this year, he revisited his start with Early Days (2016-2019), a compilation of unreleased music from Mauri's teen years. "Jazz fusion has become my favorite genre and greatest inspiration of all time," Mauri says. "I made this album for the version of me that first fell in love with music. It's my full-circle moment - a sonic hat tip to my beginnings - as well as a nod to the forefathers of jazz fusion and city pop for leaving us with great music." Through it all, he's kept the same DIY spirit, writing and recording every note himself, only now in a home studio of his own. On Odisea, Tapia blends neon-lit City Pop with the melodic sensibility of Latin American soft rock. Mauri's deep love for 70s and 80s jazz fusion records anchors the album, yet Tapia filters those influences through a modern lens. Odisea features two Japanese vocalists, - Hikari and HITOMITOI. Also check out Los Retros new compilation "Early Days" released simultaneously. RIYL soul, bedroom pop, indie, modern jazz, downtempo, soft rock, Mac DeMarco, Thee Sacred Souls, Skinshape, Men I Trust

Originally released in 1993 on Big Beat/Atlantic, MC Thick’s The Show Ain’t Over Till the Fatman Swings followed his 1991 underground single “Marrero (What the Fellas Be Yellin)” and marked a defining moment for the Marrero, Louisiana rapper. While early ’90s New Orleans was dominated by bounce, MC Thick stood apart with gritty, street-level storytelling and a raw, unapologetic voice.

Featuring “T.H.I.C.K.” and production work involving T-Ray (Todd Ray), known for his work with Cypress Hill, the album remains an important piece of Southern rap history.

Fully remastered and pressed on black vinyl, this is the first vinyl availability in decades. Housed in a full-color jacket with a printed insert and is limited to 500 copies worldwide.

Responsible Friend is an album about the ways in which we show up for one another. What does it mean to be a responsible friend - to be there for someone you love without trying to save them - in a society steeped in conflict and injustice? Some of the songs on Responsible Friend are joyful dedications while others feel more like letters Elizabeth wasn't sure she wanted to send. Taken together, it's a record about slowing down in a world that keeps accelerating. It's a commitment to friends, family, and self, at a time when everyone seems to be carrying more than they can reasonably hold.

Skirting the line between post-punk and electronic music is the world in which this new project from Nathan nisbet resides. The Perth producer is looking back to his favourite bands from the 80s like The Cure and The The while applying his usual techniques for electronic dance music. The end result is analog and gritty yet heartfelt.

Enter Shikari melden sich mit ihrem bisher ambitioniertesten und emotionalsten Album zurück: "Lose Your Self", das achte Studioalbum der Band, erscheint überraschend und besticht durch eine furchtlose Verschmelzung von Post-Hardcore-Intensität, elektronischen Experimenten und politisch engagierten Texten. Aufbauend auf ihrem UK-Nr.1-Album "A Kiss For The Whole World" (2023) und mit einem noch stärkeren Fokus auf cineastische, club-beeinflusste Klangwelten, präsentiert "Lose Your Self" eine Band, die die Grenzen des Heavy-Sounds immer wieder neu definiert. Das Album wird mit Headliner-Arena-Shows in Großbritannien und Europa sowie Konzerten in Nordamerika und Australien unterstützt. Der Guardian verlieh der Tournee 2024 vier Sterne und bezeichnete das audiovisuelle Spektakel als "den Beginn des größten Kapitels von Enter Shikari".

In a most original impetus this album traverses forty years of Italian new wave and singer-songwriter tradition. As in the desert where Infesta’s urge is to walk, we are ambushed by the most intense thermal and sonic difference.

It is from here that this important journey we mustn’t miss begins. It leads us eight thousand meters deep in the blue abyss. Not quite enough to come out the other side and, as a kite, bestow all the heights that I will reach. These depths are nevertheless necessary to adjust our eyes to the darkness that lives within us, as a machine to burst our hearts to which we can’t and won't be accomplices.

Machine against machine. The increasing pressure of the lashes of an incessant current, at times sweet and at times sour, on which all the courage is sung and yet is everywhere dispersed like thoughts on water and melodies to be lost at sea. Darkness persists: you said the world can be lived where all was taken. And it’s a crazy and estranging babbling that, stripped by a current, answers: never never never never, in no direction.

My companions, come back, the breaking point has been found, we sing together. Leaf after leaf the time has come: it is possible to destroy the Machine in a mad blinding light.

Cigarettes After Sex return with a double single that showcases both their future and their past. The single featured on the B-side, “Anna Karenina,” is a quintessential Cigs track, sensual, slow-burning, and emotionally oversized, with lyrics so confessional they verge on too much. But its inclusion of spoken word verses adds a striking new dimension to Greg Gonzalez’s world, expanding the band’s intimate palette. Its chorus (“I cried at the end of Anna Karenina, when she threw herself under the train”) might be the most Cigarettes After Sex lyric ever written. The A-side is a long-rumored fan favorite finally seeing release: a gorgeously faithful cover of The Doors’ “The Crystal Ship,” recast in the band’s signature haze. Jim Morrison’s romantic fatalism never sounded more at home.

BCUC – Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness – have been channeling the spirit of Soweto for over twenty years. Indigenous funk, hip-hop consciousness, and punk rock energy fused into something utterly original and deeply rooted. Their mantra: Music for the people, by the people, with the people. From humble beginnings rehearsing in a shipping container, a stone's throw from the church where Desmond Tutu organized the escape of the most wanted anti-Apartheid activists, they kept believing in their dream of self-empowerment. Today they command festival stages worldwide: Glastonbury West Holts, Roskilde, Afropunk Brooklyn, WOMAD, Fusion, Sziget, FMM Sines, Beaches Brew, Boomtown, Colours of Ostrava, Couleur Café – to name just a few. In 2023, BCUC were honoured with the prestigious WOMEX Artist Award, an accolade usually reserved for more established artists, in recognition of their fearless work and transcendent live performances.

THE ROAD IS NEVER EASY

The Road Is Never Easy is BCUC's fifth album and their debut on Outhere Records. On this new offering, BCUC take listeners on another Afro-psychedelic journey into the soul of Soweto. It feels like a gospel sermon colliding with a punk concert, "guaranteed to touch untapped corners of your soul" (OkayAfrica). BCUC's music is deeply rooted in history and echoes the voices of the ones who came before. The road was never easy for the people of Soweto who originally came to work in the mines of Egoli, the City of Gold, Johannesburg. When apartheid finally ended after a long struggle, it was hoped that life would improve. But more than 30 years later, many of those initial hopes and dreams are still waiting to be fulfilled. This album is about that struggle. The album contains 10 brand new songs – a record for BCUC, whose previous albums featured an average of 3 songs. It represents the culmination of more than two decades of performing together and building a reputation as a powerful live act. These ten songs encapsulate that same live energy, each one building gradually and drawing you into BCUC's Afro-psychedelic stream of consciousness. It's a seismic tour de force through life in Soweto today. Songs like Amakhandela (Breaking All the Chains) connect history to daily life: "How is this precious metal inflicting so much pain in us," sing BCUC, "this government has been telling us we are free, but we don't benefit from being free." The album also talks about all the hopes and dreams that remain: "I have too many wishes and dreams in my head," BCUC sing in Um duma khanda, "I think I am losing my mind". The album ends with the soothing Matla a rona ke Bophelo, "our strength is life", praising the spirits and thanking the elders for protection. The Road Is Never Easy is about the harsh reality of life in Soweto, where "people always carry heavy loads". BCUC are street poets trying to deal with that burden: sometimes revolutionary, sometimes soothing, but always hopeful and compassionate. "When you are from Soweto you can't retreat nor surrender." (Sebenzela)

RECORDING

The album was largely recorded in Munich, Germany during tour breaks over two sessions, each three days long. It took place in a small studio located in a German WW II bunker converted into rehearsal spaces. The songs were recorded in one take altogether in one room, with only a few overdubs added, mainly backing vocals, by BCUC at Fourways studio in Johannesburg. BCUC have created their own distinctive way of writing, or rather, finding and creating their songs. The recording process is like an improvised live performance. They bring their ideas into a zone where the music, the rhythm and the spirits take over until the song starts to form. In this Afro-psychedelic zone BCUC create their unique poetry that feeds on the dreams still dreamt, the hopes, the fears and the temptations lingering everywhere. BCUC's songs need to breathe and time to build. The right take was the one when the song took over, and just like their live performances, no one knew beforehand where the song would take them. During the recording, BCUC just let it all flow out: inner turmoil, cries of rebellion, but also resilience and a search for healing, love, unity and compassion. You don't have to be from Soweto to feel the deep meaning and impact of this music. In these times of so much hate and division, BCUC are like a campfire for people to gather around.

PRODUCTION & ARTWORK

"BCUC have a unique magic," says Outhere's Jay Rutledge, who produced the album. "It blew our minds. It's like punk and pure gospel at the same time. Their music can make you dance and it can make you cry, all at the same time. And when the song is over, you feel you're not alone in this world anymore. We felt compelled to do this." The album cover is based on a matchbox design, matches being a common household item in South Africa even today. "These were the matches people used to burn government buildings and cars," explain BCUC. Little messages, addresses, or phone numbers used to be scribbled on the back of these boxes; each one a reminder of the strength, resilience, and resistance that once drove the struggle for freedom in Soweto. BCUC keep this flame burning. The Road Is Never Easy is a heavy spiritual road trip, a deep dive into the subconscious of Soweto and a quest for truth, justice and sanity in this crazy world. BCUC tackle the harsh realities of the voiceless, guided by the spirit world of their ancestors. Rather than reinforcing stereotypes of poverty, BCUC's portrayal of Africa is one rich in tradition, rituals and beliefs. "We bring fun and Afro-psychedelic fire from the hood," says vocalist Kgomotso Mokone.

»Music for Shared Rooms« is B. Fleischmann’s eleventh solo album and his first since 2018. It is also not an album, or at least not in the conventional sense of the word. These 16 instrumental pieces provide a kaleidoscopic glimpse of a forward-thinking musician at home in many different musical worlds, including experimental and abstract music, pop and more classically-minded compositional forms. These pieces were culled from an archive of roughly 600 compositions for theatre pieces and films written throughout the past twelve years. The Österreichischer Filmpreis-awarded composer, however, aimed for more than simply documenting his extensive work in and with different media. To do so, he edited and re-mixed the individual recordings for this release, taking them out of their contexts and reworking them for an audience who can experience them in a different setting. »Music for Shared Rooms« makes it possible for its listeners to engage with the sounds and to fill the spaces they open up with their own imagination.

Roughly speaking, music for theatre or film can serve two functions: it either takes the lead, or underscores what is happening on stage or screen. The marvelous thing about these pieces is that they manage to do both. Fleischmann’s work as a prolific producer has always drawn on contrasts, at times combining pop sentiment with rigid experimentation, the seemingly naive with the intricate and complex. This approach also marks the tracks collected here: bringing together acoustic elements and electronic sounds, at times working with conventional structures but always de- and re-contextualising them, Fleischmann constructs a vivid dramaturgy out of discrete singular compositions, letting them interact across the record.

Take, for example, the opener »Träumerei« and the following »Brenne«: after the soothing acoustic sounds of the former, the latter quickly picks up speed with hard-hitting drum machine rhythms. It’s a stark contrast sonically and stylistically, however both tracks are tied together by a certain harmonic sensibility. This sort of dramaturgical interconnectedness of varied musical materials is the thread that runs through »Music for Shared Rooms«. A droney piece for string instruments like »Sehnsucht« is followed by a trip-hop beat, before »Schock« lives up to its title with skittering beats and piercing high frequencies. The differences between the pieces may be striking, but the progression from one to the other is subtle. It goes on like this through different moods and tempos. There’s soothing-yet-eerie piano pieces like the »Für Elise«-inspired »Der Lärmkrieg«, gentle house grooves, joyful synthesizer excursions and, finally, »Die Erde ist mir fremd geworden«, a collage of abstract textures and concrete sounds.

All these pieces create distinct situations through the juxtaposition of diverse musical elements, but are also bound together by a single vision. Writing music for theatre pieces or film requires a composer and his pieces to engage with people and their movements in space, which is exactly what Fleischmann offers on this record. He breaks down the fourth wall and invites his listeners into his world, a wide-ranging musical panorama. »Music for Shared Rooms« is indeed not an album in the conventional sense of the word, but more like a photo album in which each page opens up a new space to get lost in; recreates different scenes in which you can immerse yourself. These are shared rooms indeed.

Generic Flipper, the debut album by Flipper, remains the most absorbing full-length LP to emerge from the early San Francisco punk scene. A constant source of imitation for so-called "noise rock" bands, it has yet to be surpassed in its nihilistic glee.

Recorded between October 1980 and August 1981 and released in 1982 on the indispensable Subterranean Records, this album functions as a chaotic, sticky mass of individual personalities: the magma-like bass eruptions and dual vocals of Will Shatter and Bruce Loose, Ted Falconi's icy guitar scraping and the relentless beat of drummer Steve DePace. At times playful and taciturn, paranoid and absurd, Generic charts a deliberate path that willfully chances destruction.

In early '80s punk, when the hardening default was "faster-shorter-louder," Generic subverts the nascent hardcore scene with a strictly applied regimen of turgid-slower-heavier. The lyrics are bleak, yet unnervingly beautiful. "Ever" sets the tone with trademark restraint – "Ever wish the human race didn't exist? And then realize you're one too?" – while closer "Sex Bomb" is a churning, 8-minute epic with looping bass, saxophone accompaniment and electronic effects of dropping bombs.

Tons of indie bands have attempted to recreate Flipper's mix of acidic guitar, metallic bass sludge and sardonically brilliant lyricism, using the seemingly effortless template they pioneered; however, the effect usually drives listeners right back to Generic. While most of their contemporaries wilt under direct comparison, No Trend, the Butthole Surfers, feedtime and Church Police are a few who can stand the frigid heat.

Artist and multi-instrumentalist Flaer embraces the search for quiet miracles on first full-length LP Translations.

In 2023, Realf Heygate - who makes music as Flaer - released his debut mini-album Preludes, composed on his mother’s piano and his childhood cello.Returning to ODDA for his debut full-length album, Heygate is now looking in another direction. A record that embraces transition and movement, Translations is in many ways more internal, less rooted to a single place and reflective of the process of laying new foundations in Cornwall.

Like Preludes, Translations is coloured with found sounds and field recordings, from the starlings which can be heard singing through the open window of his studio, to the brittle recordings of his mother, who was a linguist, learning Spanish on a set of language tapes. In both cases, Heygate embraced the translations and memories inherent to the sounds.

“When I digitised my mother’s tapes, they warped and stuttered in a very similar way to the starling’s song,” he explains. “They had this uncanny rhythm and pulse that I couldn’t quite decode, but was saying something." These decayed transmissions hint at loss, resisting clarity in favour of the ineffable.

Translations is also a record of ambiguities and in-betweens, suggested by the double meaning of the album’s opening track ‘Entre’. At once intricate and expansive, threaded with birdsong and acoustic guitar motifs, this and ‘Starling Descends’ (a reference to Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’) act as a bridge away from the pastoral themes of Preludes towards a more assertive sound. At times intimate in its textured instrumentation and at others more overtly grand in orchestration, reflecting awider palette of influences.

“Flaer began in many ways when I picked up my mother’s instruments, seeking a form of reconnection. Where words evaded me, they became the tools through which I found a language for grief – and above all, for love.”

Recorded between 2023 and 2025 – what Heygate calls “A gradual process of sowing and harvesting ideas rather than a single intense creative period” - each track follows a rhythm similar to the small maquettes and sculptures he has been working on in his visual practice, whereby structures and melodies form intuitively in moments that are as rare as they are fleeting.

“It's that feeling of searching that I really enjoy,” Heygate continues. “I never know what the destination of the composition is going to be, and I never really find what it is."

Translations is released on limited edition off-white vinyl LP (500 copies worldwide) with one of five signed and numbered handmade risograph prints. It's also available as standard black vinyl LP and digitally.

Cititrax release Sand Clock, the new full-length album by Men With Secrets, the Italian trio of Donato Dozzy, Lino Monaco, and Nicola Buono (Retina.it). Originally emerging from a shared background in experimental techno under the name Le Officine Di Efesto, the three musicians turned toward classic post-punk, minimal wave, and synth-driven pop with the formation of Men With Secrets. Their debut album Psycho Romance (2020), released on Bunker Records, introduced a meticulously produced body of work that felt like a rediscovered European darkwave recording from the early 1980s—yet was entirely contemporary in its construction.

With Sand Clock, the trio deepen this language. The album leans more directly into the melodic clarity and romantic tension of late-80s and early-90s darkwave and synthpop while maintaining the stark restraint that defines the project. Icy synthesizers, shuddering basslines, and precise drum machine programming frame baritone vocals that are intimate, emotionally exposed, and quietly apocalyptic.

Balancing pop structure with gothic atmosphere, Sand Clock moves between shadowed dance floor momentum and solitary headphone introspection. It is not an exercise in revivalism, but a continuation—an acknowledgment that the emotional architecture of that era remains unresolved and still relevant. Written and produced by Donato Dozzy, Lino Monaco, and Nicola Buono and recorded in Rome and Pompeii.

The vinyl edition is pressed on clear 160-gram vinyl, limited to 500 copies worldwide. Each record is housed in a heavy printed jacket with a printed inner sleeve.

"Hayalet Kırıkları" unfolds like a diary of fragmented memories, where voices, textures and distant echoes blur into something both intimate and unsettling.
Hilal Can’s luminous presence meets Tzii’s raw sonic landscapes, creating a music that feels suspended—between memory and invention, absence and desire.
With the spectral violin of Ruben Tenenbaum, the record shimmers like a fragile world on the verge of dissolving.