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Originally released on Ezekiel Honig's Anticipate label in 2007, Standing on a Hummingbird is the debut album by Canadian sound artist Mark Templeton, now appearing for the first time on vinyl, newly remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi and cut by LUPO. Working at the intersection of post-glitch, electroacoustic ambient, and textural minimalism, Templeton composes through restraint and erosion, building patient and richly tactile pieces primarily from acoustic sources - fingerpicked guitar, plaintive banjo, muted accordion tones - subjected to careful processes of granulation, filtering, and environmental masking. These gestures never overwhelm the source material; instead, they wonderfully destabilize it. Melodies appear briefly, only to dissolve into dense atmospheres of field recordings: distant streets, birds, water, air. Sounds hover, vibrate, and vanish, much like the wing beating latent in the album’s title.

Tracks such as “Pattern For a Pillow” and “Amidst Things Uncontrolled” articulate this approach with particular clarity, setting languid acoustic figures against churning granular backdrops that feel at once sheltering and unstable. Elsewhere, moments of fragile clarity - fluttering guitar lines, reedy accordion tones - briefly break the surface before being absorbed back into the field.

Heard today, the record offers a clarion, almost spartan strain of textural ambient music: intricate yet unforced, shaped by human touch rather than automated excess. Its refusal of spectacle feels especially vital in a landscape saturated with maximalist digitalia - a reminder that electronic music’s most enduring gestures often occur where sound is allowed to tremble and hold itself just long enough to be felt before disappearing once again. (Alex Cobb, 2026)

"Wired" ist ein harter Neustart für Basement. Es markiert das erste Album der britischen Band seit acht Jahren, eine Wiedervereinigung mit ihrem ursprünglichen Label Run For Cover Records und eine Rückkehr zu jener ungebändigten Leidenschaft und kreativen Intuition, die schon immer ihr bestes Material ausgezeichnet hat. Seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2009 besteht Basement aus denselben fünf Freunden - Sänger Andrew Fisher, den Gitarristen Alex Henery und Ronan Crix, Bassist Duncan Stewart und Schlagzeuger James Fisher - und derselben alchemischen Verbundenheit. Das Einzige, was sich in den letzten Jahren verändert hat, ist ihr erneuertes Gefühl von Zielstrebigkeit. Und das macht ihr neues Album deutlich hörbar. "Wired" ist das dynamischste, mutigste und inspirierteste Werk, das Basement je geschaffen haben, und bewahrt zugleich die zeitlosen Grundlagen ihres einzigartigen Sounds: grollende Gitarren, mitreißende Refrains und eindringliche emotionale Sprache. Basement sind zurück und laufen auf allen Zylindern, aber sie haben kein Interesse daran, alte Erfolge zu wiederholen. Die gesamte Band war entschlossen, dass "Wired" ihr bisher klarstes künstlerisches Statement werden musste. Der Titelsong ist das drängendste Stück ihrer Karriere - ein sicherer Live-Favorit, getragen von stechenden Gitarren, einem wuchtigen Schlagzeug und einem himmelhohen Hook, bei dem Fishers Stimme in Bestform ist. "Broken By Design" zeigt den gegenteiligen Charakter: düster, zart, bassgeführt, aber dennoch typisch Basement in seiner sofortigen Eingängigkeit und stimmungsvollen Atmosphäre. Nichts auf Wired klingt stagnierend, kein Teil wirkt unausgereift. Die Band ließ sich von einer Vielzahl abenteuerlustiger Vorbilder inspirieren (R.E.M., Interpol, Smashing Pumpkins, um nur einige zu nennen), ohne jemals wie eine dieser Bands zu klingen - und auch nicht wie eine Kopie ihrer selbst. Der Albumtitel fasst all das in einem einzigen Wort zusammen. Die texturalen Konnotationen von "Wired" - metallisch, scharf, zackig - spiegeln die stählernen Klangwelten des Albums wider. Auf konzeptioneller Ebene spricht der Titel für die unerschütterliche Zähigkeit der Band: eine analoge Band, die in einer immer digitaleren Welt erfolgreich bleibt, ohne sich auf nostalgische Bequemlichkeit zu verlassen. Fünf Freunde, die mehrere Trennungen und Neuanfänge überstanden haben und dabei als Menschen und musikalische Einheit gewachsen sind. Basement müssen ihr Schicksal akzeptieren: Sie sind einfach dafür gemacht.

"Wired" ist ein harter Neustart für Basement. Es markiert das erste Album der britischen Band seit acht Jahren, eine Wiedervereinigung mit ihrem ursprünglichen Label Run For Cover Records und eine Rückkehr zu jener ungebändigten Leidenschaft und kreativen Intuition, die schon immer ihr bestes Material ausgezeichnet hat. Seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2009 besteht Basement aus denselben fünf Freunden - Sänger Andrew Fisher, den Gitarristen Alex Henery und Ronan Crix, Bassist Duncan Stewart und Schlagzeuger James Fisher - und derselben alchemischen Verbundenheit. Das Einzige, was sich in den letzten Jahren verändert hat, ist ihr erneuertes Gefühl von Zielstrebigkeit. Und das macht ihr neues Album deutlich hörbar. "Wired" ist das dynamischste, mutigste und inspirierteste Werk, das Basement je geschaffen haben, und bewahrt zugleich die zeitlosen Grundlagen ihres einzigartigen Sounds: grollende Gitarren, mitreißende Refrains und eindringliche emotionale Sprache. Basement sind zurück und laufen auf allen Zylindern, aber sie haben kein Interesse daran, alte Erfolge zu wiederholen. Die gesamte Band war entschlossen, dass "Wired" ihr bisher klarstes künstlerisches Statement werden musste. Der Titelsong ist das drängendste Stück ihrer Karriere - ein sicherer Live-Favorit, getragen von stechenden Gitarren, einem wuchtigen Schlagzeug und einem himmelhohen Hook, bei dem Fishers Stimme in Bestform ist. "Broken By Design" zeigt den gegenteiligen Charakter: düster, zart, bassgeführt, aber dennoch typisch Basement in seiner sofortigen Eingängigkeit und stimmungsvollen Atmosphäre. Nichts auf Wired klingt stagnierend, kein Teil wirkt unausgereift. Die Band ließ sich von einer Vielzahl abenteuerlustiger Vorbilder inspirieren (R.E.M., Interpol, Smashing Pumpkins, um nur einige zu nennen), ohne jemals wie eine dieser Bands zu klingen - und auch nicht wie eine Kopie ihrer selbst. Der Albumtitel fasst all das in einem einzigen Wort zusammen. Die texturalen Konnotationen von "Wired" - metallisch, scharf, zackig - spiegeln die stählernen Klangwelten des Albums wider. Auf konzeptioneller Ebene spricht der Titel für die unerschütterliche Zähigkeit der Band: eine analoge Band, die in einer immer digitaleren Welt erfolgreich bleibt, ohne sich auf nostalgische Bequemlichkeit zu verlassen. Fünf Freunde, die mehrere Trennungen und Neuanfänge überstanden haben und dabei als Menschen und musikalische Einheit gewachsen sind. Basement müssen ihr Schicksal akzeptieren: Sie sind einfach dafür gemacht.

With 'Tangkoa II', Belgian producer and multi-instrumentalist Dijf Sanders invites listeners into a vibrant and immersive sonic world shaped by travel, collaboration and instinct. Released via Unday Records, the album grew out of field recordings captured during a journey through Vietnam, later transformed into rhythmic, colourful compositions that feel both intimate and expansive.

Rather than building tracks piece by piece on a screen, Sanders approaches music as something alive and unfolding. Sounds are performed and reshaped in real time, giving the album a spontaneous energy, as if the music is discovering itself while you listen. Together with drummer and producer Simon Segers, he creates a fluid dialogue between electronic sounds and human rhythm, balancing precision with freedom.

Improvisation lies at the heart of 'Tangkoa II'. Contributions from Vitja Pauwels (guitar), Viktor Perdieus (saxophone) and Louise van den Heuvel (bass) bring a subtle jazz sensibility to the music, pushing it toward hypnotic grooves and unexpected turns.

The result is an album that feels warm, physical and constantly in motion. Electronic music that breathes, pulses and draws you fully into its atmosphere.

Nonesuch Records releases Let X=X, by Laurie Anderson with Sexmob. This triple-LP/double-CD set was recorded live during a 2023 tour by Anderson and the jazz band Sexmob – Steven Bernstein and Briggan Krauss on brass, Kenny Wollesen on percussion, Douglas Wieselman on winds and guitar, and Tony Scherr on bass. Its cover and interior packaging feature paintings by Anderson. The album features 23 songs, including many favourites from throughout Anderson’s career, performed in new arrangements – plus one by Lou Reed and Metallica, ‘Junior Dad’. Anderson and Sexmob play more US and international dates this spring and summer (details below).

The New York Times said Anderson and Sexmob’s concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) ‘wasn’t a historical recreation of past recordings; Sexmob’s sound is a beefier one than on Anderson’s albums. With musicians who can double on electric guitar and bass clarinet, its members offered a rich range of textural variation throughout the evening.’

Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than 40 years. In a recent 60 Minutes profile, Anderson Cooper said she ‘is a pioneer of the avant-garde, but... that doesn’t begin to describe what she creates... It’s experienced by audiences who come to see her perform: singing, telling stories, and playing strange violins of her own invention... she blends the beautiful and the bizarre, challenging audiences with homilies and humor. She blurs boundaries across music, theater, dance, and film.’ The Washington Post has said she ‘doesn’t just tell stories; she draws out every word with a kind of physical pleasure, tasting its flavor as she probes the everyday mysteries of life.’

Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records, the critically lauded Life on a String, in 2001. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002); Homeland (2010); the soundtrack to her acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015); and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Nonesuch released a re-mastered edition of Big Science in 2007 for its 25th anniversary, followed by a vinyl LP re-issue in 2021; the album includes Anderson’s beloved, surprise hit, song, ‘O Superman’, which also is featured on Let X=X. Her recent Nonesuch release was 2024’s Amelia, about renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight.

Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date. Recent exhibitions and installations of Anderson’s work include Habeas Corpus at New York’s Park Avenue Armory; her largest exhibition to date, The Weather, at Washington, DC’s Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art; and Looking into a Mirror Sideways at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, which was her largest European exhibition to date.

Laurie Anderson was awarded the 2024 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, along with Christopher Nolan and David Attenborough, and the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet in her honour: Asteroid 270588, Laurieanderson. That same year, she was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Grammy award-winning titan of dance music Purple Disco Machine joins the illustrious list of Defected House Masters with a celebratory compilation. The German producer, DJ and global household name Tino Pointek, AKA Purple Disco Machine, is the blueprint for what makes a successful dance music artist in the modern age; respected on the underground scene while achieving major crossover success with remixes for the likes of Sir Elton John, Dua Lipa and Mark Ronson. The crate digging kingpin of house and disco first landed on Defected over a decade ago, and has since delivered remixes of iconic tracks like Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You’ and the London label’s top tracks including Shakedown’s ‘At Night’ and ‘Coma Cat’ by Tensnake – as well as striking originals like ‘Beat Fantasy’. From edits of the classics to remixes of the modern, as well as uplifting originals, Purple Disco Machine has birthed a distinct sound that is instantly recognisable, one that is not afraid to reference or not reference and is always bursting with joy. Across Defected presents House Masters: Purple Disco Machine, the full breadth of the iconic German selector’s sound is felt from the 2019 smash hit ‘Dished (Male Stripper)’ to deep cuts like his re-work of Fallout’s ‘The Morning After’ as well as remixes of legendary tracks like ‘Lola’s Theme’ by The Shapeshifters and Spiller’s ‘Groovejet’ featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Defected presents House Masters: Purple Disco Machine is here to showcase the sound of a bona fide electronic maverick in full.

By the end of the 1980s, R&B and soul were very much a part of pop culture. However, it was the UK group The Pasadenas who paid the most honest homage to the origins of these genres, with their music drawing on 1950s doo-wop, 1960s Motown and 1970s funk and R&B. The single “Enchanted Lady”, for example, was an ode to Smokey Robinson and could easily have been mistaken for the real thing.

Now their debut album To Whom It May Concern is finally back in stock for the first time on coloured vinyl. The album's biggest hit was "Tribute (Right On)", which took Europe by storm in the summer of 1988. The album was also a huge success, selling over a million copies.

To Whom It May Concern is available as a limited edition on red vinyl and includes an insert.

Repress

The Collaboration - Having toured together over the years, Lattimore and Barwick now join forces to co-write and record this full-length album. Their creative synergy brings together harp, voice, and analog synths in a deeply emotional, immersive sound journey. The album was recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris with co-producer Trevor Spencer (Fleet Foxes, Beach House). This album continues a unique series of collaborations between the label and the Musée de la Musique, featuring historical instruments in contemporary composition. Since 2017, InFiné and the Philharmonie de Paris have co-developed a series of albums designed to highlight the extraordinary instrument collection of the Musée de la Musique. Following the albums InBach by Arandel (2020) and Saturn 63 by Seb Martel (2022), this third release is a meeting of two iconic contemporary ambient voices: Mary Lattimore and Julianna Barwick. The project offers the artists full access to the museum’s playable instruments for recording, sound conservation, and creative reinterpretation.



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Tragic Magic brings together Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore, two of contemporary ambient, experimental and electronic music’s most celebrated composers, for a unique collaboration at the Philharmonie de Paris, with extraordinary access to the Musée de la Musique’s instrument collection, in partnership with the French label InFiné. The album features seven immersive, evocative compositions guided by the human spirit – intimate, grounded in friendship, both earthly and cosmic – and part of a greater continuum, reflecting the solace and transformative power of artistry across generations.

Co-produced by Trevor Spencer (Fleet Foxes, Beach House), Tragic Magic was created in just nine days, a testament to the “musical telepathy” that has developed between Barwick and Lattimore over years of touring and friendship. Arriving in Paris from Los Angeles shortly after the 2025 wildfires, their sessions combined improvisation with the emotions and experiences they carried, in a setting both inspiring and deeply supportive. Lattimore selected harps tracing the instrument’s evolution from 1728 to 1873, while Barwick chose several iconic analog synthesizers, including the Roland JUPITER and Sequential Circuits PROPHET-5. In freeform dialogue between voice and instrument, they create a meditation on tragedy, wonder, and the restorative power of shared experience.

The duo, often joined by Spencer, also explored the city, sharing meals and visiting museums and landmarks, each encounter leaving an impression on their next session. The experience allowed them to work intimately with rare instruments, blending their personal sensibilities with centuries of history, resulting in music that honors the past while remaining a deeply authentic expression of the present.
Throughout Tragic Magic, Barwick and Lattimore find something beyond themselves: a sense that while everything may not be okay, beauty persists. Their approach – transforming life into music, observing, feeling, and creating – continues a lineage of creative expression and visionary invention, embodied in the very instruments they employed for this project.

Evergreen In Your Mind, the new and third album from Norwegian singer-songwriter Juni Habel, exists in two worlds at the same time. Songs were recorded in quiet corners of her home, on the piano in the school where she works, and it uses the physical world around her to provide percussion. It also takes place, as she herself attests, within a dream; an imagined place in which her desire for oneness with each other and the world around us is finally realised.

Evergreen In Your Mind was recorded with co-producer Stian Skaaden, it’s Habel’s first album in three-years, following the breakthrough success of 2023’s Carvings LP. Formed of eleven new recordings, the songs here remain delicate, Habel’s voice playing an elegant lead role – but there are fluctuations too.

These small shifts in Habel’s sound result in a notable stride forward. More focus went into the groove of these songs. Playfulness was embraced and, perhaps most importantly, patience played a fundamental role in shaping the album with time and care given to every element of these songs. “We always aim to capture effortlessness - but the way of getting there is anything but effortless,” Habel reveals.

This extra time that was given to the project gave Juni the space to nurture her creativity. She would read and listen to music, hike into the hills, place herself within nature and seek out stillness. Not as a deviation from her work but as a fundamental part of the process. It’s a search for connection, and it’s a recurring theme across Evergreen In Your Mind; the polarity between stillness and passion, also our resistance to these desires, and the things we want to live and experience.

The album’s title-track and fist single feels indicative of this narrative. A gorgeous, delicate folk song, it finds Habel out in the woods, hiding from real life, caught in the space between the natural world and the pull of modernity. “It’s nostalgic. It’s about looking back and realizing things will be different,” Habel says. “Its about visualizing something beautiful in your head that you keep clinging onto.”

The album cover for Evergreen In Your Mind also adds shimmer. A striking photograph of Juni among the mountains, it was taken on a day trip to Rondane, a five-hour drive each way from her home. Habel explains. “It was awe-inspiring to drive all the way up into the high mountains, with its wide plains and intense colours. For an album with music that at times likes to hide itself, I think it fitted nicely with such an epic, grand, and powerful landscape.”

"Fans of Nick Drake, Karen Dalton and Neil Young will find much to enjoy in this musical equivalent of an evening spent alone by the fireside.” The Times

Corona Vinyl, Limited to 1000 copies. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of their album Carnival of Rust, Poets of the Fall will release a special new vinyl edition of the record. The anniversary pressing features a previously unreleased single, "Black Waters", presented as a final added chapter to the album's story. Unearthed from the original recording sessions and completed in the present day, the track feels less like an outtake and more like a voice that finally found its moment. The anniversary vinyl will also feature a newly edited cover design, offering the audience a fresh visual take on the classic record.

On Dreams ’24 / ’25, Scottish composer Bill Wells turns his nocturnal imagination into a sequence of delicate musical miniatures. The album brings together 24 short pieces, most of them under two minutes, unfolding in just under half an hour like a quietly drifting dream diary.

The album is split into two parts. On the Dreams 2024 side, Norman Blake lends his voice to Wells’ dream-born melodies. Blake, best known as a founding member of Teenage Fanclub, recorded the songs with Wells in a single afternoon at his home, capturing their fragile immediacy in direct and unadorned performances.

For Dreams 2025, Aby Vulliamy — one of Yorkshire’s best kept musical secrets — takes over vocal duties. In mid 2025, Wells sent her a batch of demos; Vulliamy recorded them at home and sent them back to him. The result is a second chapter that feels more introspective, intimate and gently surreal.

The songs themselves are born directly from dreams. Wells wakes from the dream, records it on his mobile and later shapes it into a brief, lyrical composition. One piece, Mackenzie’s Return, was inspired by a dream in which Elvis Costello marched through the streets of a suburban town complaining that he had run out of song ideas, a detail that perfectly captures the album’s blend of humour, strangeness and quiet melancholy.

Dreams ’24 / ’25 is not a collection of fully formed pop songs, but rather a series of fleeting emotional snapshots: soft voices, simple motifs, and melodies that appear and vanish before they can fully settle. It is an album that rewards close listening, inviting the listener into a private, half-lit space somewhere between memory and imagination.

The album is accompanied by a striking cover artwork by Annabel Wright.

Nurtured on 90s alternative indie, lucky break's music melds the emotional directness of Fiona Apple, the wide-eyed warmth of Bedouine and the Americana-leaning alt rock of Lucinda Williams. Fans of Alvvays, Hole, Phoebe Bridgers and The Breeders will find familiar touchstones here. lucky break is a hand-drawn cartoon character and a girl with a guitar, an ever-expanding container for the feelings that come with making art. She can be very sad and very joyful, living somewhere between worlds. On her debut for Fire Records, made it!, lucky break builds a new world for her character to inhabit. made it! collects songs written between the ages of 19 and 23, documenting the uncertainty of early adulthood, the end of a first major relationship and the process of learning to stand up for yourself. Tracks like "Crush" pair sharp lyrical insight with big drums and crisp bass, while "Head Down" uses bright, dreamy guitars to explore themes of politics, consumer culture and moral complacency. Confessional, direct and emotionally precise, lucky break's songwriting is matched by a versatile and expressive vocal performance that shifts across moods and styles throughout the record. Produced with Elliott Woodbridge in Burbank, made it! is a playful, self-assured debut from a young artist who has already found her voice and is stepping confidently into a bright future. Digisleeve-CD and coloured Vinyl-LP w/ dlc available!

Brandnew album by Ian Svenonius (Nation of Ulysses, Make Up, Chain & the Gang, XYZ) latest project, his best yet, packed with super hits and provocative songs! ESCAPE-ISM - the found-sound-dream-drama - are back in action and out in front! And this time, they're leading a "Charge of the Love Brigade." Their fifth record, and fourth "sound" record - (the third one was "A Protest Against Sound"- an entirely silent LP) - "Charge of the Love Brigade" is revolutionary in its own right. Besides being packed with tunes with super-hits such as e.g. "Black Gold", "Last Of The Sellouts", "The Rebel Outlaw", & "Fire in Malibu", the new album proposes a reformation of the traditional notes and scales, an entirely new sound alphabet! "The violent overthrow of musical conventions will lead to the reintegration of humanity into the natural order, the reordering of life itself into a cosmic congruity. This means the convention of time itself will be ended." Play "Charge of the Love Brigade" and listen as ESCAPE-ISM go "over the top" against the note-letters of accepted musicality in a world premiere of a new upside-down antiscale! An album which furthers Svenonious' mission of upending and vandalizing indie-rock, garage and electronic norms and repurposing them in the context of a found-sound fever dream!

Als Blackwater Holylight vor drei Jahren ihre Heimatstadt Portland, Oregon, verließen, war es ihr Ziel, der Tristesse des pazifischen Nordwestens und dem beruhigenden Komfort des Vertrauten zu entfliehen. Mit dem Ziel, das sonnigere Klima von Los Angeles zu genießen, fand sich die Band nicht nur in einer wärmeren Umgebung wieder, sondern auch in einer völlig neuen Landschaft - einer ohne Arbeitsplätze, langjährige Freundeskreise und die bequeme Zuflucht alter Gewohnheiten. Und genau hier, unbelastet von der Zufriedenheit der Sicherheit, begann Blackwater Holylight fleißig an ihrem vierten Album ,Not Here Not Gone" zu arbeiten. Wie schon ihre früheren Werke beschäftigt sich ,Not Here Not Gone" mit der Dualität von Licht und Dunkelheit - bedrohliche Riffs bilden das Fundament für betörende Melodien, dichte Wände aus Shoegaze-Gitarren paaren sich mit luftig-leichten Synthesizern, und schwere Themen werden durch sirenenhafte Gesänge vermittelt. Im Laufe des Albums verspürt der Zuhörer mal ein Gefühl der Stärke, mal ein Gefühl der Verletzlichkeit. Wie Schlagzeugerin Eliese Dorsay es beschreibt: ,In einigen Songs sind wir die Raubtiere, in anderen die Beute." Die Gegenüberstellung von Selbstvertrauen und Unsicherheit ist nirgendwo so deutlich zu spüren wie bei einer lebensverändernden Entscheidung, was vielleicht erklärt, warum der Umzug der Band ihr Studium der Kontraste auf ,Not Here Not Gone" zu neuen Höhenflügen intensiviert hat . ,Not Here Not Gone" wurde im Sonic Ranch außerhalb von El Paso, Texas, von Sonny Diperri (Narrow Head, DIIV, Emma Ruth Rundle) aufgenommen, wodurch die Band erneut ihre Komfortzone verlassen und sich an einem Ort isolieren konnte, an dem sie sich ausschließlich auf ihre Kunst konzentrieren konnte. Das Ergebnis ist das Kronjuwel von Blackwater Holylights Diskografie - eine reichhaltige und eindringliche Studie in tonalen Hell-Dunkel-Kontrasten, in der das Licht seinen Weg aus den Schatten findet.

Nurtured on 90s alternative indie, lucky break's music melds the emotional directness of Fiona Apple, the wide-eyed warmth of Bedouine and the Americana-leaning alt rock of Lucinda Williams. Fans of Alvvays, Hole, Phoebe Bridgers and The Breeders will find familiar touchstones here. lucky break is a hand-drawn cartoon character and a girl with a guitar, an ever-expanding container for the feelings that come with making art. She can be very sad and very joyful, living somewhere between worlds. On her debut for Fire Records, made it!, lucky break builds a new world for her character to inhabit. made it! collects songs written between the ages of 19 and 23, documenting the uncertainty of early adulthood, the end of a first major relationship and the process of learning to stand up for yourself. Tracks like "Crush" pair sharp lyrical insight with big drums and crisp bass, while "Head Down" uses bright, dreamy guitars to explore themes of politics, consumer culture and moral complacency. Confessional, direct and emotionally precise, lucky break's songwriting is matched by a versatile and expressive vocal performance that shifts across moods and styles throughout the record. Produced with Elliott Woodbridge in Burbank, made it! is a playful, self-assured debut from a young artist who has already found her voice and is stepping confidently into a bright future. Digisleeve-CD and coloured Vinyl-LP w/ dlc available!

Intimacy is manifested in every moment of Radiator, the debut album from Philadelphia's Sadurn. This feeling of closeness, of being able to lend your every sense to one's confessions of internal conflict, is due in large part to the circumstances under which this album was created. Much of the world fell apart in 2020, but Sadurn tucked themselves away in a Pocono's cabin, creating and recording what would become their first full-length. Within the confines of their close quarters, passing animals as the only auditory witness to a makeshift recording studio created by moving furniture, Sadurn created an album that will break your heart and then slowly piece it back together.Sadurn started as the solo project of Genevieve ??DeGroot. Picking up guitar in 2015, DeGroot started writing songs, eventually playing DIY shows throughout the city of Philadelphia. With time, the direction, sound, and members of Sadurn changed. The beginning of 2020 was meant to serve as their debut as a four member band (Jon Cox on guitar/tenor guitar, Tabita Ahnert on bass, and Amelia Swan on drums), but the world had other plans and the group adapted.Taking influence from artists like Gillian Welch, Alex G, and Jason Molina, Sadurn's emotive indie rock explores the struggles and eventual beauty of grappling with multiple emotional realities, particularly when it comes to relationships. That conflict, the idea of being forced to choose, even when terrified, is present on singles like "Radiator" and "Golden Arm." The latter is an unhurried ballad that shows its truest colors with time, eventually blossoming with unexpected admissions of desire and uncertainty. Indecision, heartbreak, and attempting to live out your days against the actual backdrop of a gradually worsening hellscape is a shared commonality among us all, but on Radiator Sadurn breaks down walls that others so often put up. It's a fleeting, impactful glimpse at one's whole heart, and its sweeping, special nature is evident from the moment the album opens.

Aspen is very proud to introduce ‘Non Sonett’ by the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble. This ensemble is a pioneering Norwegian chamber group whose work on ECM and Hubro has redefined the boundaries between jazz, contemporary composition and folk music.Across seven albums, the ensemble has developed a highly distinctive l anguage built on restraint, timbral nuance and collective interplay, placing it among the most influential European ensembles of the 21st century.

Bringing together some of the finest musicians in Norway, the ensemble draws on a rare collective sensitivity, where each player contributes to a deeply integrated and texturally rich sound world.

With Non Sonett, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble opens a new chapter that grows directly out of recent years of work in more solitary and cross-disciplinary contexts. In this period, Wallumrød has developed material for solo performance as well as for dance, allowing ideas to take shape in more fluid and exploratory formats. Some of this material now finds its way into the ensemble, where it is met by the possibilities offered by instrumentation, collective playing, and the distinct voices of the musicians. At the same time, older pieces—originating in entirely different settings— re-emerge here in new forms, reshaped by the ensemble context.

A defining aspect of Non Sonett is the way many of the pieces function less as fully determined compositions and more as open frameworks: starting points, suggestions, or “springboards” for music. These structures invite response rather than prescribe outcome, relying on the ensemble’s inherent sensitivity and capacity to realize and transform the material in performance. The result is music that feels both precise and fluid, shaped in equal measure by composition and by the interpretative presence of the players.

Central to this album is a continued deepening of Wallumrød’s long-standing interest in ambiguity and in dissolving boundaries between different musical elements and expressive worlds. By placing contrasting materials and associations side by side—sometimes subtly, sometimes more overtly—the music opens up spaces where meanings remain fluid and interconnected. On Non Sonett, this approach is taken a step further, allowing these juxtapositions to play an even more active role in shaping the music’s character and flow.

This approach connects closely with the ensemble’s broader artistic trajectory. Over time, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble has developed a language that is immediately recognizable—marked by reduction, clarity and a deep attention to sonic detail. While each release has its own character, the underlying aesthetic remains consistent: a focus on the inner life of sound itself. Rather than foregrounding gesture or virtuosity, the music draws the listener toward the smallest elements, where meaning emerges gradually through texture, spacing and timbre.

The listening experience becomes one of concentration and proximity, where each sound carries weight, and the accumulation of detail forms a larger whole. References may be sensed—to early polyphonic music, Norwegian folk traditions, or more recent experimental practices—but these are absorbed into a singular musical language that resists categorization.

As with the ensemble’s recent work, Non Sonett also continues the integration of electronics as a fundamental part of the sound world. Each musician engages with electronic elements alongside their acoustic instruments, creating a layered and dynamic sonic environment. At times, this leads into extended, exploratory passages reminiscent of analogue musique concrète; at others, electronics operate almost imperceptibly, subtly altering and extending the acoustic textures in real time.

The highly anticipated collaborative album, GOLDFISH, sees two of contemporary hip-hop's most revered and distinct production minds, Hit-Boy and The Alchemist, finally join forces for a full-length statement. Far from a simple beat-swap, this project is a masterclass in sonic cohesion, blurring the lines between their signature sounds to forge a new, golden-hued identity. Beyond production, the duo step from behind the boards to behind the mic to trade verses throughout the project, adding a personal layer to their creative vision.

GOLDFISH is a deeply immersive listen, perfectly balancing the West Coast muscle and polished, anthemic quality of Hit-Boy's work with the dusty, abstract texture and cinematic suspense that defines The Alchemist's aesthetic.

The result is a sound that feels both street-tested and museum-worthy. A collaborative manifesto, showcasing the infinite possibilities when two generational talents decide to link up, creating an instant classic in the canon of producer/MC albums.

Marcos Valle is one of those artists you simply can’t overlook if you have even a passing interest in Brazilian music. Whether your taste leans toward bossa jazz, samba, psychedelic folk, or modern soul, Valle has surely recorded a great album for you.

By the late 1960s he had already released enough outstanding records to secure a place among the greatest Brazilian artists of all time, but fortunately his career didn’t stop there. He has continued recording fabulous albums over the following decades, right up to the present day.

This second album by Marcos Valle (1965) is one of the foundational works of bossa nova. In fact, the record includes one of the most widely heard and covered Brazilian songs in history: ‘Samba de Verão.’ In addition to his work as a composer—alongside his brother Paulo Sergio—Marcos Valle also begins to reveal himself here as a great singer, with a soft, almost fragile voice, while his acoustic guitar recreates the same intimacy of the nighttime atmosphere in which he composed most of the songs.

The arrangements were co-written with Eumir Deodato, with the participation of other renowned Brazilian musicians, and they surround Valle’s compositions with elegant string orchestrations, bossa rhythms, and jazzy touches of swing. Highlights include the sophisticated beauty of songs like ‘Preciso Aprender a Ser Só,’ the rhythmic 3/4 feel of tracks such as ‘Seu Encanto,’ and the powerful ‘Deus Brasileiro.’

First vinyl reissue in over 50 years!

Swedish visionary Boko Yout is releasing their long-awaited debut album GUSTO, out via Hoopdiggas Recordings. GUSTO is Boko Yout's debut album - a kaleidoscopic journey through memory, trauma, humour and healing. Framed as a fictional therapy programme led by the eccentric Dr. Gusto, each track represents a confrontation with a different shadow of the self: unspoken fears, inherited burdens, or unresolved inner conflicts. But GUSTO is not just about darkness - it's also about hope, longing and the light that makes those shadows visible in the first place. Boko Yout weaves together raw emotion, spiritual symbolism and bold experimentation. Referencing vodun philosophy, Jungian archetypes and post-genre production, they draws inspiration from artists like Yves Tumor, Odd Future and LCD Soundsystem. The result is a debut that feels more like a sonic manifesto - driven by love, intention and a deep commitment to artistic freedom. Previously not available for retail outside of Sweden, 1st edition sold out, 2nd edition repress - Mixed and mastered by Gustav Brunn (ALLINAUDIO) - Genre/Style: Alternative / Rock / Afro Grunge

“Weird, rowdy and just a little bit black metal” – TWIN SERPENT’s sophomore album out in May via Svart Records Facilitating country influences and the energy of punk, Twin Serpent is a noisy but cute outsider band that manages to blur genre boundaries. Inspired by the likes of The Taxpayers and 16 Horsepower, this crust-country band applies lo-fi black metal aesthetics without having to bathe in blood. Songs about love, betrayal and defiance are delivered with acoustic to amp-wall dynamics, duelling vocal harmonies, shrieking solos and distorted banjos. The debut album Feels Like Heaven, North Of Hell (2022, Loyal Blood Records) was described by the press as genre-defying and compared to bands like GY!BE and Tom Waits. The sophomore TRUE NORWEGIAN BLACKGRASS turns the volume to twelve and the trainbeat races down the tracks at a derailing speed. Covering topics on windmill resistance, porn industry and post-Trump America accompanied by playful country punk with a twinkle in the eye, laced with cosmic and occult undertones. “We’re super happy to finally unbox our sophomore weirdo rocker! And we’re specially stoked to do so on the amazing Svart Records! This particularly hits home with Timo who was born in Finland.

There’s even a song in Finnish on the album, which came out great! The artwork is amazing and everything is there for a reason. We recorded it during the year of the serpent at Piir studio, just a 5-minute walk from our home in Svartlamon, Trondheim, NO. Vebjørn Svanberg Numme aka the wizard technician did an amazing job capturing the essence of the Twins during a hot summer week. 12 songs about love, betrayal and black holes with country licks, rock’n’roll kicks and heaps of punk attitude is the result and we’re super proud to present the first tease from it! We’ve kept things close to home as our resident artist Hanna and designer Tony did the cover art! It’s weird, rowdy and just a little bit black metal", comments the band on the new album. With a slew of sold out shows in their hometown of Trondheim, the band is delighted to spread their cosmic gospel to the people! Twin Serpent goes hard with in-your-face attitude and fits in barn dances as well as punk festivals!

“Weird, rowdy and just a little bit black metal” – TWIN SERPENT’s sophomore album out in May via Svart Records Facilitating country influences and the energy of punk, Twin Serpent is a noisy but cute outsider band that manages to blur genre boundaries. Inspired by the likes of The Taxpayers and 16 Horsepower, this crust-country band applies lo-fi black metal aesthetics without having to bathe in blood. Songs about love, betrayal and defiance are delivered with acoustic to amp-wall dynamics, duelling vocal harmonies, shrieking solos and distorted banjos. The debut album Feels Like Heaven, North Of Hell (2022, Loyal Blood Records) was described by the press as genre-defying and compared to bands like GY!BE and Tom Waits. The sophomore TRUE NORWEGIAN BLACKGRASS turns the volume to twelve and the trainbeat races down the tracks at a derailing speed. Covering topics on windmill resistance, porn industry and post-Trump America accompanied by playful country punk with a twinkle in the eye, laced with cosmic and occult undertones. “We’re super happy to finally unbox our sophomore weirdo rocker! And we’re specially stoked to do so on the amazing Svart Records! This particularly hits home with Timo who was born in Finland.

There’s even a song in Finnish on the album, which came out great! The artwork is amazing and everything is there for a reason. We recorded it during the year of the serpent at Piir studio, just a 5-minute walk from our home in Svartlamon, Trondheim, NO. Vebjørn Svanberg Numme aka the wizard technician did an amazing job capturing the essence of the Twins during a hot summer week. 12 songs about love, betrayal and black holes with country licks, rock’n’roll kicks and heaps of punk attitude is the result and we’re super proud to present the first tease from it! We’ve kept things close to home as our resident artist Hanna and designer Tony did the cover art! It’s weird, rowdy and just a little bit black metal", comments the band on the new album. With a slew of sold out shows in their hometown of Trondheim, the band is delighted to spread their cosmic gospel to the people! Twin Serpent goes hard with in-your-face attitude and fits in barn dances as well as punk festivals!

Radiohop are a four-piece jazz / hip-hop band from Amsterdam, exploring the boundaries between groove, texture and improvisation. Hard to Handle is their second album and the first drop on Melting Pot Music. As the title suggests, Radiohop are going hard on this one.

Radiohop are Joshua Lutz (keys), Euan Jenkins (drums), Johnny Biner (guitar) and Joel Svedberg (bass). All four of them moved to Amsterdam around 2020 to study jazz and quickly plugged into the city’s bubbling scene.

Each band member plays an equal role in shaping the music as a single organism, emphasising feeling and atmosphere rather than ego or individual spotlight.

The compositions arise from experimentation, intuitive collaboration and deep listening, an approach that has as much to do with their backgrounds as improvisers and beat-makers as it does with their roots in jazz.

Radiohop have performed as the rhythm section for artists like Soul Supreme and Juju Rogers. Beat-heads might be familiar with Joshua’s solo project, Halfpastseven, which has collaborated with FloFilz and Jake Milliner

The upcoming album is sharp, cohesive, and rooted in who she's always been. Growing up in North London, she absorbed the chaos and hooks of the indie sleaze scene, and now she channels that restless energy into songs that feel alive, pulsing like a sweaty gig in Camden or Shoreditch. It's classic girli alt-pop -- nostalgic, chaotic, and fearless, but sharpened with a bold new edge. girli has been teasing the new era since the end of 2025, sharing 'Better Undressed' and the powerful recent single 'Slap on the Wrist'. Known for her shimmering, highconcept production and fearless commentary, girli now pivots toward a more grounded, girl- next- door energy, trading gloss for grit, and polish for raw, intimate expression. Since emerging with her breakthrough sophomore album, 'Matriarchy', girli has carved a space in the alternative scene for bold, boundary-pushing storytelling. Her ability to merge pop essence with underground energy has earned her a tight- knit and dedicated fanbase.

As lead singer Steve Harris says "We're a band from the South and we play music that comes from the South". Originally formed in 2011, the band has been steadily building a global fanbase through successful songs at rock radio, backed up by constant touring in the US, Canada, the UK and Europe. Influenced by classic rock legends like Bad Company, Free, and ZZ Top, along with soul and American roots music, A La Mode is their debut album for Quarto Valley Records.

PMF007 has landed

We are honoured to welcome veteran artist Dennis Walks to the Poor Man’s Friend label. Having cut his teeth with Duke Reid in the mid to late 1960s, Dennis Walks has been recording consistently for over 60 years.

Best known for his massive hits “Drifter,” “Heart Don’t Leap,” and “Margaret,” alongside the great The Mudies, Dennis brings a smooth yet powerful voice rooted in R&B and doo-wop influences. Combined with his intricate and thoughtful songwriting, he remains one of our favourite artists from the rocksteady and early reggae era.

“What A Pressure” is a vibrant, horn-led early roots reggae cut that captures the raw spirit and sonic identity of Jamaica’s foundational studio era. Driven by an upbeat tempo and undeniable energy, the track is elevated by rich, full-bodied backing vocals that perfectly frame Dennis Walks’s unmistakable voice. His delivery carries a weight of experience, bringing to life a set of beautifully constructed conscious lyrics that speak with both urgency and soul.

At its core, the production is propelled by a deep, rolling bassline that locks tightly with a heavily saturated rhythm section, creating a warm, analog feel reminiscent of classic recordings from Kingston’s golden age. The horns cut through with authority, adding brightness and drive, while the overall arrangement maintains a tight, authentic groove.

Italy via Atlanta, say hello to Titino and “Sun Splicer”, the latest release on The Comfort. Three separate ideas connect this EP across 4 tracks. It toys with the expectations of its listener — core features morph as tracks progress, stable kick patterns turn to breaks and in reverse, simple stabs progress to melodic junctions. Acid permeates this record, not as a clear motif but a tinged essence. And it’s sincere, both to the setting of these pieces and where they’ll be listened to and what it honors.

“Shblasted” — a back-and-forth groove machine filled with dub sirens and stepped up acid. Clubby introduction meant for sacred dance floors.

“Ouachita” on the A2 is controlled chaos, snares fly around, synth lines seem to want to escape their own confines and it just bursts onto the listener. Then the keys come in, the groove stabilizes, pads become bigger and new life is given.

The B-side is playful. “Sun Splicer” is perhaps most aptly categorized by a now notorious idea of ‘electro house’, and the pure aggressive euphoria this track carries just might be that, but as we all know the Italians do it differently — it’s a heady dark excursion. “Existenz” is all-smiles no matter how menacing its first contact, a hook of a track that reimagines the weirder side of Italian trance — think Interactive Test at its most wonderful. The dusty snares feel like a balancing tool instead of an homage.

On the two-year anniversary of The Past Is Still Alive – named one of the Best Albums of the 2020s So Far by Pitchfork, and one of the Best Albums of 2024 by the New York Times, The Atlantic, Associated Press, NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Billboard, OUT, Mojo, Uncut and a multitude of others – Hurray for the Riff Raff releases a new live record, Live Forever. The album was captured over the course of two sold-out summer nights at the Old Town School of Folk Music in bandleader Alynda Segarra’s new home of Chicago, Illinois. Spanning 14 songs, Live Forever presents The Past Is Still Alive in its entirety, as well as a selection of Hurray for the Riff Raff’s show-stopping, set-defining staples: decrying ICE on the poetic ‘Precious Cargo’ and The Navigator’s anthemic ‘Pa’lante’; the prescient digital age critique of ‘Pyramid Scheme’; and ripping through a folk-rock rendition of LIFE ON EARTH’s ‘Rhododendron’.

“I moved to Chicago in September 2024, the year I released The Past Is Still Alive and hit the road with a new band – a group of musicians recommended by my front of house/production manager, Johnny Wilson. Everyone had ties to the city, and had been playing together in the DIY scene for over a decade.

Since then we’ve traveled the world together, becoming family, playing the best shows of my life. Chicago has become home for me, and I feel grateful for the welcome I’ve gotten into the best music scene in the country.

I wanted to capture this time and this brilliant band, a moment that won’t last forever. This record is a love letter to the working class musicians out there, we who slug it out on the road against all odds. We deserve so much more from an industry built to exploit us. It’s a thank you to all the fans supporting live music, you who believe songs made by human beings are a vital life force.

Saosin’s debut EP fuses razor-wire melodies, blistering drums, and Anthony Green’s unmistakably emotive vocals into a release that helped define early-2000s post-hardcore. Balancing chaos and catharsis, the EP pairs technical precision with raw feeling, delivering songs that feel both urgent and timeless.

First Word Records proudly present the second single from Above The Clouds (aka kidkanevil & Magic Manfred), taking on another underground hip hop classic, 'Change'.

'Change' was originally performed by Shadez of Brooklyn, produced by Da Beatminerz and most notably appeared on DJ Premier's legendary 'New York Reality Check 101' mix compilation back in 1997.

This 7" vinyl release follows on from last Summer's MF DOOM cover 'Arrow Root', which received strong support from the likes of Japan's DJ Koco and Philadelphia's DJ Jazzy Jeff.

This new instrumental reinterpretation also features cuts by Leicester-based turntablist, Jon1st - a DMC World Online Champion, as well as being a producer & musician in his own right, collaborating on music with a number of hip hop, D&B and electronic artists.

One of the original First Word roster, UK Producer/DJ and all-round laptop music geek kidkanevil has developed a distinctive and progressive sound over the years, gleefully exploring the beats and bleeps of the electronic music universe to international recognition. Leeds born, sound system bred and raised on a (un)healthy diet of video games and anime, his solo work inhabits the curious space between bass frequencies and otaku culture. But as a devoted teenage backpack rap nerd, somewhere in the back of kid's mind was a lingering desire to reconnect with his first love, hip hop.

Not long after moving to Berlin he joined a studio space in graffiti plastered Kreuzberg, where he met multi instrumentalist wizard Magic Manfred; a disciple of all things boogie, disco, funk and soul. Born and raised in Berlin, and currently a touring musician for many an act, Manfred's musical map joins the dots from piano lessons at four, to starting a band with his teenage friends, leading him to his true calling - the bass - via the club vibrations of his hometown, which introduced him to the world of DJing and production, and a stint studying in the explosive London jazz scene to finalise his Jedi training.

Bonding over their mutual love of '90s hip hop, a friendship and musical kinship developed, coupled with a desire to honour past eras but push things forward, Above The Clouds was born; named after their joint favourite DJ Premier beat, with a touch of irony regarding their basement based studio of a windowless variety.

kidkanevil explains further "We started the project with a few covers, just as a way to get warmed up and in a certain creative headspace, of which 'Change' by Shadez Of Brooklyn was one. We both loved DJ Premier's 'New York Reality Check 101' mix when we were teenagers and this track was a favourite. The elements really lent themselves to live interpretation, and as an instrumental there was space to bring some nice movement with the bass and stuff. Hopefully we found the balance between paying tribute and finding our own pocket. For the final seasoning we hit up the homie and turntable wizard Jon1st to recreate the cuts, of which he did an immaculate job of course.

The b-side 'Urgh' is one of our favourite beats we've made so far; the title is just how it makes us feel! We actually recorded the piano with two iphones as left and right and it sounded kinda cool so we went with it..."

'Change / Urgh' is released on limited 7" vinyl & digital platforms, April 24th 2026.

Wah Wah 45s are very excited to announce a brand new remixes from dub donPrince Fattyfor beloved Afro-reggae outfitSoothsayers.

Love Is Still The Answeris a beautifully uplifting song, written and sung by long time Soothsayers member and collaboratorJulia Bielabout the eternal power of love and its ability to overcome hate. It appears in its original incarnation on the band's recent, critically acclaimed album,Fly Higher.

Mike Pelaconi, AKA Prince Fatty has been part of the Wah Wah 45s and Soothsayers extended family for many years, and here he delivers a typically crowd pleasing mix, in both vocal and dub form, from the world of Rockers Reggae, calling legendary reggae drummerHorsemaninto the studio, and crafting a lush rocksteady remix with a new horn arrangement and stripped back instrumentation.


"In a world that feels more divided and chaotic than ever,Love Is Still the Answer is a reminder that real change can still come from within. We may feel powerless in the face of global turmoil, but when we choose love - actively, consistently, even in tough situations - we reclaim strength for ourselves. This song calls us back to our shared humanity, to the energy that connects us all. It's an invitation to tune into what really matters, and to rediscover beauty where we may have forgotten to seek it." Robin Hopcraft (Soothsayers)

a A1: Prince Fatty Rockers Remix feat. Julia B.

a A1: Prince Fatty Rockers Remix [feat. Julia B.]

[a] A1: Prince Fatty Rockers Remix [feat. Julia B.]

Resonant Duality is an album built around Kyouzon, the Japanese idea of coexistence, where duality and togetherness are always present. The tracks move between light and dark, soft and loud, tension and release, but always come back to a feeling of sharing the same space. So Takahashi, originally from Yokohama, Japan, is a multidisciplinary artist who studied visual communication in New York. Since the late 1990s, he has been active as a composer and performer within electronic music, noted for his minimalistic melodies, sample manipulation, and unique sense of composition. Having released nine releases since 1999, he has lived and worked in Oslo, Norway in recent years, where "Resonant Reality" marks his tenth release. Charles Lynch, born in Tours, France, began his musical journey with classical piano at an early age before expanding his studies to art, visual communication, and design in Paris. Under the artist name A Saner Lynch, he has released two classical music albums, blending his background in classical performance with a contemporary artistic sensibility. The two musicians met in Oslo, Norway, a decade ago. Their shared interests in both classical and electronic music led them to collaborate, merging their distinct backgrounds and creative visions. Together, they compose music that reflects their combined influences, bridging the worlds of classical tradition and electronic innovation.

Closed For The Festival is MIDI Janitor’s fourth full-length and is the follow-up to the Holy To Dogs LP, which was originally released on cassette in 2024 on legendary Vancouver tape label Hotham Sound and then in a vinyl edition by Toronto’s We Are Busy Bodies.

The Midi Janitor’s new album, Closed For The Festival, is a biography of Jonathan Orr’s shadow self.

Born from memories of his childhood spent wandering rural Ireland in Ballymore, Donegal on his grandmother’s Christian commune, Closed For The Festival masterfully straddles the line between warped joy and sinister naivety. As Orr states, “the songs are always trying to get to that moment of taking your hand and walking you into the woods on a pretty spring afternoon and then abandoning you there to figure out ‘how do I get out of here??’”

Closed For The Festival recalls the skewed electronica of Boards Of Canada, the dusted syncopations of Heathered Pearls, and the long-buried treasures uncovered by the Sublime Frequencies label, but is never willfully nostalgic in nature - each track is an incantation in honour of ‘thin places’, where the presence of an eternal moment seeps into the present moment - the uncanny feeling of which has followed The Midi Janitor throughout his life and creative work.
- Steve Ramsay: Young Galaxy, Stars

Commitment is an inevitability. Guitarist Jake Smith and drummer Pierce Jordan knew each other for years as friends and musicians in Philadelphia who desired to explore a more straightforward and hard-hitting sound as songwriters in positions they’d played in the past, but never together. Smith and Jordan spent months playing together and getting a feel for each other’s styles and viewpoints, specifically not making choices about a name or which influences to prioritize until the lineup was complete. As plain as it is that Commitment is about creating a pathway to new experiences, it’s also about strengthening existing relationships. For the band, Smith dragged his lifelong friend Zach Bailey out of rock n’ roll retirement to take up bass guitar. While not wanting to make any immediate decisions about other members, Smith and Jordan knew they wanted someone who had never played in a band before. A newcomer in any position results in a fresh perspective and approach, and at the front of a band typically includes a raw energy that often can’t be reproduced. They found this in Tati Salazar. Tati had mainly existed as a solo musician under the name The Childlike Empress (now known as Le Siren) and had built a significant listenership doing so. True as can be to the world of music, but new to singing in a hardcore punk band, Tati jumped in feet first, fitting in so naturally as the band’s vocalist that the rest of the band initially struggled to practice or even correctly perceive their new material without them.

It would be easy to pigeonhole Footballhead’s unapologetically-buttrock-inspired record Weight of The Truth as simple nostalgia bait. Why wouldn’t millennials lust for the days of Halo and energy drinks in carpeted basements they’re not convinced they’ll ever be able to afford for themselves? Beyond that, why would the zoomers that now intently follow not try and chase the high of hyperreality in a bygone world that looks, to them, downright utopian when compared to the present?

What sets Footballhead’s capital-R Rock sound apart from contemporaries is - in addition to just sounding better - a desire and an ability to thread the needle between paying homage to a quasi-idyllic past and pursuing an earnest future. Footballhead wears their 2000s-era influences on their waffle-knit longsleeves, with power chord drives and pummeling choruses, all sequenced together like the teeth of a skeleton key able to unlock core memories for people who’ve either been there or people who simply wonder what being there was like. Both the anthems and ballads on Weight of The Truth are waxed and polished to perfection like the lip of a favored skatepark ledge.

But underlying all that, even more impressively, is a grit and substance derived from years spent in the Chicago DIY scene, exposing themselves to different styles and influences equally out of necessity as out of interest. It bleeds through on every track. You can bullshit your way into a vibe but, as the band shows on any number of recent releases, including singles off their upcoming second LP: you can’t fake heart. With an ear to the past but an eye to the present, Footballhead invites you to remember what it meant to give a shit back when the world felt simpler - and what it might feel like to do so again.

It would be easy to pigeonhole Footballhead’s unapologetically-buttrock-inspired record Weight of The Truth as simple nostalgia bait. Why wouldn’t millennials lust for the days of Halo and energy drinks in carpeted basements they’re not convinced they’ll ever be able to afford for themselves? Beyond that, why would the zoomers that now intently follow not try and chase the high of hyperreality in a bygone world that looks, to them, downright utopian when compared to the present?

What sets Footballhead’s capital-R Rock sound apart from contemporaries is - in addition to just sounding better - a desire and an ability to thread the needle between paying homage to a quasi-idyllic past and pursuing an earnest future. Footballhead wears their 2000s-era influences on their waffle-knit longsleeves, with power chord drives and pummeling choruses, all sequenced together like the teeth of a skeleton key able to unlock core memories for people who’ve either been there or people who simply wonder what being there was like. Both the anthems and ballads on Weight of The Truth are waxed and polished to perfection like the lip of a favored skatepark ledge.

But underlying all that, even more impressively, is a grit and substance derived from years spent in the Chicago DIY scene, exposing themselves to different styles and influences equally out of necessity as out of interest. It bleeds through on every track. You can bullshit your way into a vibe but, as the band shows on any number of recent releases, including singles off their upcoming second LP: you can’t fake heart. With an ear to the past but an eye to the present, Footballhead invites you to remember what it meant to give a shit back when the world felt simpler - and what it might feel like to do so again.

Aspen is very proud to introduce ‘Non Sonett’ by the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble. This ensemble is a pioneering Norwegian chamber group whose work on ECM and Hubro has redefined the boundaries between jazz, contemporary composition and folk music.Across seven albums, the ensemble has developed a highly distinctive l anguage built on restraint, timbral nuance and collective interplay, placing it among the most influential European ensembles of the 21st century.

Bringing together some of the finest musicians in Norway, the ensemble draws on a rare collective sensitivity, where each player contributes to a deeply integrated and texturally rich sound world.

With Non Sonett, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble opens a new chapter that grows directly out of recent years of work in more solitary and cross-disciplinary contexts. In this period, Wallumrød has developed material for solo performance as well as for dance, allowing ideas to take shape in more fluid and exploratory formats. Some of this material now finds its way into the ensemble, where it is met by the possibilities offered by instrumentation, collective playing, and the distinct voices of the musicians. At the same time, older pieces—originating in entirely different settings— re-emerge here in new forms, reshaped by the ensemble context.

A defining aspect of Non Sonett is the way many of the pieces function less as fully determined compositions and more as open frameworks: starting points, suggestions, or “springboards” for music. These structures invite response rather than prescribe outcome, relying on the ensemble’s inherent sensitivity and capacity to realize and transform the material in performance. The result is music that feels both precise and fluid, shaped in equal measure by composition and by the interpretative presence of the players.

Central to this album is a continued deepening of Wallumrød’s long-standing interest in ambiguity and in dissolving boundaries between different musical elements and expressive worlds. By placing contrasting materials and associations side by side—sometimes subtly, sometimes more overtly—the music opens up spaces where meanings remain fluid and interconnected. On Non Sonett, this approach is taken a step further, allowing these juxtapositions to play an even more active role in shaping the music’s character and flow.

This approach connects closely with the ensemble’s broader artistic trajectory. Over time, the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble has developed a language that is immediately recognizable—marked by reduction, clarity and a deep attention to sonic detail. While each release has its own character, the underlying aesthetic remains consistent: a focus on the inner life of sound itself. Rather than foregrounding gesture or virtuosity, the music draws the listener toward the smallest elements, where meaning emerges gradually through texture, spacing and timbre.

The listening experience becomes one of concentration and proximity, where each sound carries weight, and the accumulation of detail forms a larger whole. References may be sensed—to early polyphonic music, Norwegian folk traditions, or more recent experimental practices—but these are absorbed into a singular musical language that resists categorization.

As with the ensemble’s recent work, Non Sonett also continues the integration of electronics as a fundamental part of the sound world. Each musician engages with electronic elements alongside their acoustic instruments, creating a layered and dynamic sonic environment. At times, this leads into extended, exploratory passages reminiscent of analogue musique concrète; at others, electronics operate almost imperceptibly, subtly altering and extending the acoustic textures in real time.