Search:harp

We are very happy to present you the second release on Tim's own Series on CHIWAX Classic Edition.
This time it's the former Relief Record from 1995 called "Return Of The Dragon"!

New Robohands LP 'Palms' is the fifth album from the London based instrumentalist and producer Andy Baxter. Moving towards different genres and arrangements from his previous albums, 'Palms' features duelling harp parts, tape echo, double bass and draws inspiration from artists such as Dorothy Ashby, Azimuth, Alice Coltrane and Toquinho.

In parts tropical and synth drenched, and in others stripped back and acoustic, 'Palms' is a journey back to saturated analog recordings of the late 60s and 70s, with a subtle modern layer of glitch FX and pitch control experimentation in places. The album makes also reference to classic releases from jazz fusion that feature the legendary Arp Odyssey synthesiser, used by artists such as Herbie Hancock and George Duke.

The seventeen track album features performances from multiple session musicians including Jim Piela on saxophone and Marco Cremaschini on Rhodes, with Baxter taking on drums, guitar, bass, keys and also mixing duties. 'Palms' is a new direction for his project and a record that thematically journeys into modern reinterpretations of jazz, downtempo, acoustic and ambient music.

Der OST des französischen Produzenten Arnaud Rebotini aka Black Strobe zum belgisch-französischem Spielfilm 'L'Ile Rouge / Red Island' (2023) von Regisseur Robin Campillo (der nach der Grand Jury Prize-Auszeichnung bei den Filmfestspielen in Cannes 2017 für seinen Film '120 BPM' Kultstatus genießt). Das semi-autobiografische Drama 'L'Ile Rouge' handelt vom Heranwachsen eines 10-jährigen Jungen Anfang der 1970er Jahre auf einem französischen Militärstützpunkt in Madagaskar und läuft im September 2023 beim 71. Internationalen Filmfestival von San Sebastián.

Get Up! ist ein moderner Blues-Klassiker in der großen, aber allzu seltenen Tradition der Zusammenarbeit von Künstlern auf einem ganzen Album. Harpers zwölftes Studioalbum, das 2013 bei Stax Records erschienen ist, vereint Gospel, Roots, Country und R&B. Die fließende Chemie zwischen den beiden Künstlern trägt dazu bei, dass sich sein vielschichtiges Werk wie nie zuvor entfaltet. Harper, Musselwhite und die Band (Gitarrist Jason Mozersky, Bassist Jesse Ingalls und Schlagzeuger Jordan Richardson) spielen diesen intensiven und emotionalen Song-Zyklus mit sparsamer Härte.

Get Up! wurde von Harper produziert, wobei der Tontechniker Sheldon Gomberg, die Bandmitglieder und der GRAMMY©-prämierte Roots Musikproduzent Chris Goldsmith als Co-Produzenten fungierten. Das Album erreichte Platz 27 der Billboard 200 Charts und debütierte auf Platz 1 der Blues-Album-Charts. Das Album wurde mit einem GRAMMY© für das beste Blues-Album ausgezeichnet und ”You Found Another Lover (I Lost Another Friend)” wurde mit Gold zertifiziert.

Das Album erscheint als Vinyl.

Released in 1976, Eternity was Alice Coltrane's first album for Warner Bros. after eight wondrous records on Impulse! Combining the drones and textures of India, the gospel and R&B of her Detroit youth and the dissonance of modern classical composition, Coltrane's music in the '70s would become increasingly difficult to categorize.

Having moved a few years earlier to California (where she founded the Vedantic Center, an Ashram for spiritual studies), Coltrane stretches out on Eternity – incorporating various musical styles, including a stirring adaptation of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring – and the results are dazzling, both in sonic scope and emotional range

Opener "Spiritual Eternal" sways between Alice's exploratory organ and the dramatic swell of lush strings. A meditative solo piece for harp, "Wisdom Eye," precedes the rollicking rhythms of "Los Caballos," which showcases some of her finest soloing.

"Om Supreme" is the album's first track to be built around bhajans (Hindu devotional songs). Featuring graceful keyboards backed by an angelic choir, this piece hints at the ecstatic devotional music that she would later make with members of her Ashram.

While Coltrane would delve deeper into her spiritual journeys and continue to expand her musical interests on subsequent LPs, Eternity remains a vivid and compelling display of her unique vision, myriad talents and passions.

The vinyl edition comes with 6 high-quality lithograph art prints (by UK illustrator Hannah Alice) representing each of the birds on the album, held in a heavy board die-cut gatefold sleeve. This unique packaging is fully interactive - the cover image is interchangeable with any of the prints. Remastered by Brian Pyle from original tapes. Bert Jansch was often quoted as saying "I'm not playing for anyone, just myself" and this feels no more apparent than on 1979's 'Avocet', his beautifully meditative paean to British birds. For fans of Jansch this is often the album that is singled out as his best work. The freedoms of a post-Pentangle career are much in evidence; folk rock and even trad folk give way to an album that is not only without lyrical accompaniment but really quite orchestral, classical even, in its composition. There are surprises in particular in 'Lapwing' (a dirge-like waltz that wouldn't be out of place on a Nils Frahm album) and 'Bittern' (which speaks of Arthur Russell's more experimental pieces). Featuring ex-bandmate Danny Thompson, alongside Martin Jenkins (Dando Shaft, amongst others) with sleeve notes by Jansch aficionado Colin Harper (author of 'Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues revival'). Ltd ART PRINT EDITION, Classic Black vinyl, plus DLC w/ bonus live tracks.

Dreamers have dreamt for as long as domes have fallen, bobbing musical swells from Stephen Foster to the Everlys. Now here comes that beautiful dreamer JOSEPHINE FOSTER and, sugarpie, she's not the same. She has donned her magenta vestiments, dreaming back, with mossy verses that haunt like a name never called. It's not just Jo and her shadow, though, this time around-she's got a gaggle of Nashville cats on hand to coax spidery cathedrals from these campfire jams. Folks will want to call this her "Harvest" - with its harp and pedal steel, its double bass and cascading piano. And it's true, "I'm a Dreamer" beckons with a gentle hand, each note clear and crisp so that one feels each grain. Amid such delicate charms, however, lurk muses with rotting flesh, ugly ducklings and Djuna Barnes, wooden floors upon which no babies will be rocked. Wily is the heart that wanders filled with duende and desire, that rides the thigh like a parlor guitar when a strap just isn't handy. These are songs comfortably at home in salon or saloon, dreams deep enough to bury your dread - as sorrowful, as sexy, as stirring a set of songs as anybody's dreamt up in ages.

The Avengers remains one of the great institutions of British television, a landmark series and the epitome of the swinging 60s.

This debut release on vinyl features highlights of music from the Tara King era series of The Avengers by composer Howard Blake,

taken from the CD release (2011). Following on from Johnny Dankworth and Laurie Johnson (whose classic theme opens this release),

Blake delivered his own distinctive musical style to the hippest show on TV. He was awarded the OBE in 1994,

after a music career covering everything from choral works and ballet to film and TV. His music for the Christmas perennial

The Snowman, with its magical Walking in the Air theme has become a seasonal standard.

- Rare and Unreleased New Orleans Funk 1968
Tuff City’s Funky Delicacies imprint has issued the 7th volume in its New Orleans Funk series. This edition has a side of vocal tracks and a side of instrumental ones. These tracks have been hard to find and many were CD only bonus tracks on earlier editions of the series now out of print.
Noted guitarist Little Buck Sinegal opens the record with “Little Boy Blue.” This was first issued in 1969 on the Seven B label. Little Buck (as he was credited on the original record) passed in 2019 after a lengthy career dating back to the late 50’s as a session man for Slim Harpo & Lazy Lester. He also was a touring member of various Zydeco legends like Clifton Chenier, Rockin’ Dopsie and Buckwheat Zydeco. Drummer Chuck Conway leads the next track with the Amars, “Get On Up.” Cover feature Deacon John Moore still lives today. “You Don’t Know (How To Turn Me On)” was a 1970 B-side on the Bell label. Brotherhood issued “Suckey Suckey Feeling” as a 2-sided single in 1974. At some point the track was renamed “Sooky Feeling” and we have Part 2 here. Singer and Pianist Tommy Ridgley’s track “Fly In My Pie” was originally issued on our sister imprint Soul-Tay-Shus on The Best of International City compilation as well as a 7” on that imprint in 1968. Lonnie Jones recorded several singles for Jenmark in the early ‘70’s including the B-side “You Got To Do Better” originally released in 1972. Sam Henry of Sam and the Soul Machine closes out the side with “Loving You.” This track was originally a CD-only bonus track on our Po’k Bones and Rice compilation of that group we issued on Funky Delicacies in 2002.
Kicking off the instrumental second side is a recently located master by Anthony Butler and the Invaders covering the Otis Redding classic “Hard To Handle.” A bit of organ Funk here. Larry Jones jams out the “Funky Jaws.” The exact year is unknown, but the J.B.’s label that issued the original record put their releases out primarily from 1974-1976. Tyrone Chestnut’s B-side of 1969’s “The Bump” is called “Bumping.” Hook and Sling piano legend Eddie Bo has two appearances. The first is the second part of the “Getting To The Middle” single that came out on Bo-Sound in 1970. Louisiana Purchase have “Accept What You Expect” before they moved from New Orleans to Detroit. The Scram Band that backed vocalist Mary Jane Hooper on her “Don’t Change Nothin’” single are here in an instrumental version of that song. The album closes with a 5-minute combined version of Eddie Bo’s “If It’s Good To You (It’s Good For You)” single, issued in 1969 on Scram.
Overall, this album contains 14 previously hard-to-find tracks that would take hundreds if not thousands of dollars to track down the original singles on the used market. These tracks have been recently remastered, including tracks that were issued as CD bonus tracks on earlier volumes.

Full Time Men is a part time venture of Fleshtone - Keith Streng (guitar and lead vocals), devoted to “Rock’n’ Roll, Good Times and Wild Music”. The group also features Gordon Spaeth (sax, harp),
Robert Warren (bass, vocals). and Bill Milhizer (drums), all full time members of New York's wild and crazy Fleshtones, and Rich Thomas (lead guitar, vocals) from LESR (That's Lower East Side Rockers
for you out-of-towners), a short-lived rock'n' roll band that would frequent the dingiest of Manhattan's Bowery nightclubs. Dig their honorary guest list: Peter Zaremba (Fleshtones), Pat DiNizio
(Smithereens), Jeff Connolly (Lyres), Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus), Stiv Bators and Pete Buck (now what band is he In again?). This collection is culled from their 1984 self-titled LP and the 1998 album,
Your Face My Fist

Leave Me Alone is the debut album of Nick Oliveri's Uncontrollable, a solo project created by Nick Oliveri (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Dwarves, Mondo Generator) released in 2014 on Schnitzel Records. It was recorded in 2013 at Thunder Underground Studios in Palm Springs, California by Harper Hug & Trevor Whatever. Nick Oliveri performs all of the instruments (vocals, guitar, bass & drums) on the album as well as all of the production & writing of the songs. He also recruited guest performers in such as Blag Dahlia of The Dwarves & Motörhead's Phil Campbell. The album is dedicated to deceased Eyehategod drummer Joey LaCaze. Heavy Psych Sounds is releasing a brand new REPRESS with new coloured vinyl.

Magenta coloured vinyl, limited to 300 copies. Leave Me Alone is the debut album of Nick Oliveri's Uncontrollable, a solo project created by Nick Oliveri (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Dwarves, Mondo Generator) released in 2014 on Schnitzel Records. It was recorded in 2013 at Thunder Underground Studios in Palm Springs, California by Harper Hug & Trevor Whatever. Nick Oliveri performs all of the instruments (vocals, guitar, bass & drums) on the album as well as all of the production & writing of the songs. He also recruited guest performers in such as Blag Dahlia of The Dwarves & Motörhead's Phil Campbell. The album is dedicated to deceased Eyehategod drummer Joey LaCaze. Heavy Psych Sounds is releasing a brand new REPRESS with new coloured vinyl.

“Praying to god whether or not I believe there is one” - PH

Petra Hermanova and Unguarded announce In Death’s Eyes (UGD-009), the debut solo LP under the artist’s own name. This LP features nine tracks utilizing folk and sacred musical technique and instrumentation which drift between song and heavy distorted drones. In a disciplined display of beauty, pain, and astute musicianship, Hermanova brings forth a notable accomplishment of an album. In Death’s Eyes confronts death from start to finish with a rare fervor that leaves one feeling it was utterly necessary for Hermanova to produce - to survive. The transcendent impulse, or the influence of religious music, bears heavily on Hermanova’s compositions in her choir arrangements, but is most apparent in her use of pipe organ, opening the record on Black Glass. Having written organ parts for a significant portion of the record, she sought out the renowned organist Denny Wilke to record with her in the Merseburg Cathedral. Captivated by Wilke's profound skill as a player and knowledge of the Ladegast organ, Hermanova invited him to collaborate on Two Deaths where he delivers an impressive improvisation. While religious music offers spiritual solace from grief, folk speaks to the human and earthly as told by the individual, be they songs of suffering or joy, sin or salvation. To Hermanova, the clean promise of liturgical music is not enough to alleviate the blunt pain of grief. Contrasting the spiritual is the voice of the individual sufferer - the folk musician. For Hermanova, the autoharp embodies this contrast. The autoharp, a familiar sound in Appalachian folk music since its mass production in the late 1800’s, is an affordable instrument designed for the unskilled player. It is the antithesis of the organ which is costly, gargantuan, reserved for skilled players, and quite literally a part of the church. Through In Death’s Eyes the sounds of transcendence blend with the worldly, the tension between them poignantly expressing Hermanova’s struggle for spiritual resolution against the reality of death and loss. Like Hermanova’s lyrics, the artwork, conceptualized by Enes Güç and Evelyn Bencicova, is riddled with symbolism and allusion. We find Hermanova on the cover, digitally rendered. Reclining like an anatomical Venus, her vital organs are exposed, suggesting she is denied a transcendent death and is instead immaculately human. Bearing a sickle, her legs are metallic like armor, both symbols of protection. We see here in this image, as we hear in the nine tracks of IDE, the metaphoric state of someone ravaged by loss, choosing to tear herself open in an attempt to heal. - Reece Cox Petra Hermanova is a musician and visual artist based in Berlin. In 2018, Hermanova began working with the autoharp, which has since become the central pillar of her musical practice. Drawing inspiration from folk, medieval drone, and contemporary textural expressions, as well as Appalachian autoharp music, she creates emotionally driven arrangements accompanied by vocals. In her lyrics, she speaks to the fragility and tenderness of the human condition, religious conceptions of death, and introspective landscapes through narrative and symbolism. Hermanova debuted live at the Berliner Festspiele event The Sun Machine is Coming Down, performed at Trauma Bar und Kino accompanied with her choir, and recently took part in Sorour Darabi’s durational performance From the Throat to the Dawn. Her debut solo album, In Death’s Eyes, is set for release in 2023 on the art platform and label Unguarded. The album, where she wrote for the autoharp, pipe organ, solo voice and choir, features the acclaimed organist Denny Wilke playing the 19th century Ladegast organ of the Merseburg Cathedral. She has toured internationally with previous projects, including extensive sound and visual collaborations with Jon Eirik Boska (Hydropsyche) as well as with her award-winning band Fiordmoss. She was recently announced as a SHAPE+ platform artist.

Joris Feiertag is a Dutch producer and drummer from Utrecht in the Netherlands who makes music that is a finely balanced blend of organic and synthesized elements, often using ingenious syncopated rhythms combined with instruments such as the harp and kalimba. Roots is his third album on revered German imprint Sonar Kollektiv. The LP features not only a plethora of vocalists from across the globe, but also sees the producer playing with obscure samples and sounds, as he attempts to discover a new direction and find that sweet spot between dark and light; major and minor; new and old; uplifting electronica and soul

Over the course of 20 years, German artist Black To Comm (Marc Richter) has pushed the limits of / and merged the aesthetics of art, conceptual installations, and music, coming in a wave of innovation alongside his peers Pita, Fennesz, and later Sarah Davachi to name a few. Through it all Richter as Black to Comm has challenged assumptions, explored identity, and confronted the concept of authorship itself. At Zeenath Parallel Heavens finds Black to Comm contemplating the hybridity within each and every one of us, be it sexual, racial, cultural, or linguistic. Richter mirrors personal dualities musically with a combination of sounds he created and manipulated samples, blurring their boundaries. "I always try to blur the line between sampling and my own recordings, also between "real" instruments,MIDI, electronics, editing, between authenticity and theatrics/artificiality," says Richter. When recording he became aware of how AI text programs processing resembles his own methods. "I had the realization recently that the way I compose is not too dissimilar to what AI software is doing nowadays - especially when the AI is hallucinating (this is the term used when the AI is overloaded/overcharged/inundated and comes up with made-up results)." Human behavior reflected in a computer facsimile of human intelligence appealed to the ethos of Black to Comm, whose titles and concepts are often oblique and tongue-in-cheek.

Over the course of 20 years, German artist Black To Comm (Marc Richter) has pushed the limits of / and merged the aesthetics of art, conceptual installations, and music, coming in a wave of innovation alongside his peers Pita, Fennesz, and later Sarah Davachi to name a few. Through it all Richter as Black to Comm has challenged assumptions, explored identity, and confronted the concept of authorship itself. At Zeenath Parallel Heavens finds Black to Comm contemplating the hybridity within each and every one of us, be it sexual, racial, cultural, or linguistic. Richter mirrors personal dualities musically with a combination of sounds he created and manipulated samples, blurring their boundaries. "I always try to blur the line between sampling and my own recordings, also between "real" instruments,MIDI, electronics, editing, between authenticity and theatrics/artificiality," says Richter. When recording he became aware of how AI text programs processing resembles his own methods. "I had the realization recently that the way I compose is not too dissimilar to what AI software is doing nowadays - especially when the AI is hallucinating (this is the term used when the AI is overloaded/overcharged/inundated and comes up with made-up results)." Human behavior reflected in a computer facsimile of human intelligence appealed to the ethos of Black to Comm, whose titles and concepts are often oblique and tongue-in-cheek.

Funk The System! The recipe is simple: Dig deep, listen to your heart, record everything you got on a dusty old desktop computer, leave it to simmer for the time of a pandemic, and if it's still fresh, serve it up on the finest plate of black wax! This collaboration started in Dusseldorf in the year 2018. Locked up for a week in the Flanger Studios, Wolf Muller and Credit 00 recorded everything: from the jaw harp to smartphone apps, chopping up GDR Jazz breaks and squeezing the Funk out of every synthesizer and drum machine at hand. You will hear the open mindedness towards all sorts of musical influences from the first note. Each of the five tracks showcases a wild mix of flavours: Disco Reggae, B-Girl Breakbeats, Protest Folk, Subway Funk, Tabla Rhythms, you name it... they'll take it and shake it! It is obvious these two got sonically socialized and educated by the multiculturalism of Hip-Hop in their early days. After the first Recording Session, the tracks fermented for some time until they were cracked open again. This time in Leipzig at Credit 00's Westend Workshop. That's also where Rizmi from Birmingham joined the team and lent her voice to the title track. She reinterpreted the lyrics of the obscure German 1980s Workers' Rock Song, that Wolf digged out for the Intro Skit of ,,Funk The System". A long time in the making, Rat Life is very happy to finally publish this EP!

Ein europäischer Jazzklassiker - zum ersten Mal auf LP!

Jean-Jacques Milteau gilt seit den 1980er Jahren als der beste Blues Harp-Spieler Frankreichs. 2001 reiste er in die oft als Wiege des Blues bezeichnete Stadt Memphis in Tennessee, um dort mit international bekannten Größen der lokalen Szene dieses erstaunliche Album einzuspielen. Neben eigenen Stücken und Songs seiner Mitspieler erfahren hier auch Neil Youngs “Heart Of Gold” und Stings “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” soulig-bluesige Überarbeitungen.

Nachdem VARG mit ihrem letzten und bis dato erfolgreichsten Album Zeichen (2020, Platz #16 der Deutschen Albumcharts) den thematischen sowie musikalischen Fokus komplett auf ihre Pagan Wurzeln gelegt haben, gehen die Wölfe diesen Pfad mit ihrem neuesten Werk unbeirrt weiter und manifestieren ihre Reinkarnation eindrucksvoll.

Ehrlich, authentisch und roh – das neue Album Ewige Wacht erscheint am 13.10.2023 via Napalm Records. Neben elf brandneuen Songs enthält das 2-CD Digipac eine spannende Bonus-CD, auf der alle Songs von verschiedensten, namenhaften Gästen dargeboten werden – darunter etwa Rotting Christ, Kanonenfieber, Alestorm, Nachtblut, Korpiklaani, Obscurity, Tyr, Forndom, Harpyie und Robse.

Das achte Studioalbum transportiert nordische Mythologie, sowie Werte wie Ehrlichkeit und Loyalität. VARG zeigen sich einmal mehr als unbesiegbare Einheit, – davon zeugt bereits der Opening-Track „Immer Treu“.

Schon hier zeichnet sich ab, wie verstärkt Sängerin Fylgja diesmal in die einzelnen Songs einbezogen wurde.

„Schildmaid“, „Fylgja“ und „Eisenseite“ stehen als Sinnbild für dieses Zusammenspiel und den Weg, den VARG seit Zeichen beschreiten.

Die folkigen Melodien in „Morgenrot“ führen zum epischen „Siegreiches Heer“, das noch mal den Einheitsgedanken schärft, der sich wie ein roter Faden durch Ewige Wacht zieht.

Der Titeltrack bildet den finalen Höhepunkt und vereint heidnische Thematik, eindringliche Melodien und die einnehmende Kraft der Wölfe.

The debut recording by Setting, a trio comprising Nathan Bowles (solo/trio, Pelt, Black Twig Pickers); Jaime Fennelly (Mind Over Mirrors, Peeesseye); and Joe Westerlund (solo, Califone, Sylvan Esso, Jake Xerxes Fussell). Deluxe LP edition features 140g black virgin vinyl and a reverse board jacket with art by Timothy Breen. Deluxe CD edition features a gatefold jacket with art by Timothy Breen. RIYL: Popol Vuh, Brian Eno’s Ambient 4, Harmonia, The Necks. Setting, befitting its name which can be read as noun or verb, and simultaneously suggests the sun, or any star in the firmament from our earthbound perspective; a story and its surroundings, its scenic context or mise en scène; or a psychedelic experience, as in the prescription to mind one’s “set and setting” arose outdoors, uncontained and unconstrained by architecture. The group’s debut recording Shone a Rainbow Light On traverses textural, phosphorescent topography with a certified organic folk-engine. Kosmische correspondences are inevitable and valid, but also somewhat deceptive, given this meditative music’s terrestrial rootedness in the familiar natural world, more in native humus and humidity than in outer space. Fuelled by a vibratory hybrid of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, these four stately longform pieces sound like a UFO slowly sinking into a peat bog (or, as we call it in North Carolina, a pocosin). An instrumental trio comprising Nathan Bowles (solo/trio, Pelt, Black Twig Pickers) on strings, keys, and percussion; Jaime Fennelly (Mind Over Mirrors, Peeesseye) on harmoniums, synthesizers, and piano zither; and Joe Westerlund (solo, Califone, Sylvan Esso, Jake Xerxes Fussell) on drums, percussion, and metallophones, Setting established its own setting and found its footing in regularly scheduled improvisational sessions outside Westerlund’s home in Durham, North Carolina, beginning in 2021. The three players began as two, in the context of occasional Bowles and Westerlund percussion duo performances dating back to 2018. Fennelly provided the initial impetus to gather and play together with intentionality and discipline, as well as an harmonic adhesive and thickening agent in the grain and gravity of his harmonium and synthesizer. As always, Bowles’s background as a pianist and drummer informs his approach to banjo, imparting a woodiness, a piney verticality and resinous tang. Westerlund’s training with Milford Graves is apparent in his polyrhythmic flow and its correspondences to human circulatory and corporeal rhythms. They recorded their collective discoveries with engineer Nick Broste in the spring of 2022.The record begins, like the group’s name, and like the language of its unique instrumental interplay, with ambiguous grammar: “We Center,” the first and longest track at thirteen and a half minutes, builds patiently to a percolating climax of tidal heaving, with ceremonial connotations. “Zoetropics,” the shortest piece, follows, offering a more diaphanous counterpoint to the density of its predecessor. The zithery, shivering “A Sun Harp,” its title redolent of Sun Ra, showcases Westerlund’s unfettered drumming, which skitters restlessly until anchored, at its conclusion, by a minor bass progression. Finally, “Fog Glossaries” exhales through the maritime and meteorological evocations of its title, distant buoys clanging. Although certainly elements and strategies of so-called ambient and drone musical traditions are invoked and deployed, those diffuse terms feel inadequate to describe everything else happening here: the devotional valences, the minimalist rigor, and even submarine jazz inclinations perceptible beneath the surface. Throughout this four-movement program, which invites deep listening, it is often difficult to differentiate individual instruments from the massed choir of the group’s unified sonic presence. At times what sound like field recordings cicadas, birds, wind, water splash out of this slow but powerful current, only to be revealed as overtones produced by harmonium, banjo, or cymbals. Setting’s sound is fundamentally synthetic in the sense of synthesis, not artifice—in a manner remarkable for its almost entirely acoustic arsenal of instrumentation, often registering as the product of a single alien technology, perhaps the rainbow lights of that bog-marooned UFO. (“Setting,” of course, can also refer to a machine’s variable operational amplitude its temperature, volume, speed, elevation, etc.) Sometimes the most seemingly extraterrestrial lifeforms are in fact our unfamiliar earthbound neighbors. Despite the destruction of many such habitats, the coastal plains of eastern, tidewater North Carolina is home to more pocosins freshwater, evergreen wetlands with deep, acidic, sandy, peat soils than anywhere else in the world. These threatened peat-bog ecosystems are the only native environment to sustain the carnivorous Venus flytrap, among other oddities. The sonic ecosystem of Setting similarly deep, acidic, and boggy contains equivalent wonders, savage and delicate, for listeners willing to take the time to sink.

Lucky number 17? You better believe it. We here at Brown Acid have been scouring the highways and byways of America for even more hidden stashes of psych/garage/proto-punk madness from the so-called Aquarian Age. There’s no flower power here, though—just acid casualties, rock stompers and major freakouts. As always, the songs have been officially licensed, and all the artists get paid. Kicking off this trip, Grapple’s “Ethereal Genesis” is a heavy psych gem from 1969 written by J. Bruce Svoboda, a.k.a. Jay Bruce, formerly of The Hangmen and The Five Canadians (who were actually the same San Antonio band). The latter’s 1966 garage favorite “Writing on the Wall” has been endlessly covered, but Grapple were never heard from again. With a guitar riff that blatantly rips off Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath,” Image’s mostly instrumental lysergic obscurity “Witchcraft ’71” (originally unveiled that very year) also boasts a horror-movie organ intro, a voodoo drum break and some championship chanting. Private press heads might recall late Image drummer John Beke from his ’80s reemergence with country rockers Crossfyre. Stone Hedge were a seven-piece rock band out of Michigan with a penchant for Creedence and anthropomorphism. “Smokey Bear” is their 1972 tribute to the official mascot of the U.S. Forest Services—not to mention the A side of their sole single—and it recalls the kind of organ-drenched swamp jam that soundtracked many a Burt Reynolds flick back in the day. If you think being a Southern rock band from Milwaukee doesn’t make much sense, that’s probably why Crossfire changed their sound along with their name—to Bad Boy—after signing with United Artists. Bad Boy’s severely underappreciated second album, Back To Back, is a 1978 hard rock jewel, but you can hear their boogie-woogie roots on this rare 1975 single. With a band name like Primevil and song title like “Too Dead To Live,” you probably expect some gnarly proto-metal riffage. Instead, you a get a harmonica-drenched, soul-infused rock rave-up from 1972. Primevil would release their sole LP two years later: Entitled Smokin’ Bats at Campton’s, it’s a reference to their trusty singer, harp player (and bat smoker?), Dave Campton. Brown Acid regulars already know Pegasus from their appearance with “The Sorcerer” on our Seventh Trip. “Ready to Rave” is the flipside to that 1972 single, in which they explain how they like their whiskey cold and their women hot. It’s another killer glimpse of what might have been if these one-and-done Baltimore hard rockers had been able to keep it together. One of two obscure singles released by Texas musician Bobby Mabe in 1969 (the other appears under the name The Outcasts), “I’m Lonely” delivers a heavy dose of vocal soul to the otherwise psych-garage presentation. Fans of fellow Houstonians the Moving Sidewalks—whom Bobby and his Outcasts may well have gigged with—will especially dig this one. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, may not be known as a cultural mecca, but they did give us Truth & Janey. This deadly hard rock trio delivered their holy grail full-length, No Rest for the Wicked, back in 1976. “Around and Around” is a Chuck Berry cover that originally appeared on a 1973 single the band released under the earlier name Truth. Originally released in 1973, “High School Letter” is the debut single from San Diego rock squad Glory. This infectious bonehead cruncher features future Beat Farmer Jerry Raney and the original rhythm section of Iron Butterfly in bassist Greg Willis and drummer Jack Pinney. Glory is what they got up to after their former bandmates left for L.A.’s garden of Eden. “Jack the Ripper” is a mercilessly bootlegged Cleveland classic from 1978 with a serrated punk edge and vocals that recall Mick Blood of Aussie savages the Lime Spiders. Or maybe it’s the other way around—the Lime Spiders formed the year after Strychnine carved off this lethal paean to the infamous Whitechapel slasher of olde.

Capra made a name for themselves with the adrenaline jolt that is In Transmission, and return with their riveting sophomore effort Errors. Maintaining all the elements that made their 2021 debut so compelling--raucous energy, frantic riffs, the from-the-gut lyrics and soul-searing delivery of vocalist Crow Lotus—they’ve stepped things up, with stronger songwriting and a determination reach the next level. “We wanted to create something authentic, something real and honest. Nothing more and nothing less,” says Lotus. Adds guitarist Tyler Harper, “I knew that I wanted it to pick up where the first album left off, but that it needed to have an entirely new attitude. If you listen to the last song from In Transmission into the first song on Errors, it’s a continuation. From there the album steers off into a direction that still feels similar, but is new.” Coming primarily from a hardcore background but incorporating elements of metal that complement the overall tone, everything the band do on Errors resonates with emotion; nothing is forced. Kicking off with the vicious “CHSF,” which is pure sonic bile and pounds the listener, they work their way through “Silana,” with its grinding, punishing riff, and the thrashy “Kingslayer.” The LP culminates with the frankly gorgeous “Nora,” showing yet another dimension to their sound. “My main goals going in were to structure the songs to let the vocals shine more often, more breakdowns, and to keep the raw attitude of the first album alive,” says Harper. “This album is a party. A heavy, fast, fun, loud party. The first album was definitely more chaotic but this one brings something to the table for everyone to enjoy.”

Brutter continue with their deep dives into the endless possibilities of beat music. The duo has a gravitation towards headstrong bass drums and pulsating patterns that contain remnants of everything from dub to disco, from hip-hop to mechanical workshop. On their fourth album 'Outta', Brutter steps out of their good dogmatic rhythm skin and brings strings into the mix. Auto-harp and lap steel guitar contribute twisted sweet tones and floating comments to everything that otherwise thumps and beats. 'Outta' gives a precise sound picture of where Brutter has ended up after 10 years of digging for rare beat metal. Brutter is the duo consisting of Norwegian brothers Christian and Fredrik Wallumrød, founded in 2012. Christian Wallumrød is a well renown pianist and composer, releasing music since 1996 on labels like ECM Records, Jazzland and Hubro. Fredrik Wallumrød was educated at the Trondheim Music Conservatory, same as his brother, with focus on drums and jazz as a genre. He has later changed his course for rock/metal and more pop-oriented music, such as Span / El Caco / Dog Almighty, in addition to his work with singer/songwriter Susanna and soul / r&b artist Jarle Bernhoft. Christian Wallumrød – drum machines, electronics, auto harp Fredrik Wallumrød – drums, drum synth, electronics, lap steel.

Through evocative, emotionally resonant music, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada , the new LP from American harpist and composer Mary Lattimore , speaks not just for its beloved namesake _ a hotel in Croatia facing renovation _ but for a universal loss that is shared. Six sprawling pieces shaped by change; nothing will ever be the same, and here, the artist, evolving in synthesis, celebrates and mourns the tragedy and beauty of the ephem - eral, all that is lived and lost to time. Documented and edited in uncharacteristically measured sessions over the course of two years, the material remains rooted in improvisation while glistening as the most refined and robust in Lattimore's decade-long catalog. It finds her communing with friends, contemporaries, and longtime influences, in full stride yet slow - ing down to nurture songs in new ways. The cast includes Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Meg Baird, Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Roy Montgomery, Samara Lubelski, and Walt McClements . "When I think of these songs, I think about fading flowers in vases, melted candles, getting older, being on tour and having things change while you're away, not realizing how ephemeral experiences are until they don't happen anymore, fear for a planet we're losing because of greed, an ode to art and music that's really shaped your life that can transport you back in time, longing to maintain sensitivity and to not sink into hollow despondency." For the title and inspiration, Lattimore's mind returns to the island of Hvar in Croatia, where she first saw those silver ladders at the water's edge. "There's a big old hotel there called the Hotel Arkada, and you could tell it had been hosting holiday-goers for decades in a great way. I walked around the lobby and the empty ballrooms and it looked like a well-worn, well-loved place. My friend Stacey who lives there told me to `say goodbye to Hotel Arkada, it might not be here when you get back' and I heard soon after that it was actually going to be renovated in a very crisp, modern way." Lattimore became fixated on the ingredients that make a place special _ for Hotel Arkada, the patinaed chandeliers, the patterned bedspreads, the echoes of its intangible charm _ and how when those leave this world, as they inevitably always will, it feels import - ant to memorialize them, "to bottle it for a brief second.

Through evocative, emotionally resonant music, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada , the new LP from American harpist and composer Mary Lattimore , speaks not just for its beloved namesake _ a hotel in Croatia facing renovation _ but for a universal loss that is shared. Six sprawling pieces shaped by change; nothing will ever be the same, and here, the artist, evolving in synthesis, celebrates and mourns the tragedy and beauty of the ephem - eral, all that is lived and lost to time. Documented and edited in uncharacteristically measured sessions over the course of two years, the material remains rooted in improvisation while glistening as the most refined and robust in Lattimore's decade-long catalog. It finds her communing with friends, contemporaries, and longtime influences, in full stride yet slow - ing down to nurture songs in new ways. The cast includes Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Meg Baird, Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Roy Montgomery, Samara Lubelski, and Walt McClements . "When I think of these songs, I think about fading flowers in vases, melted candles, getting older, being on tour and having things change while you're away, not realizing how ephemeral experiences are until they don't happen anymore, fear for a planet we're losing because of greed, an ode to art and music that's really shaped your life that can transport you back in time, longing to maintain sensitivity and to not sink into hollow despondency." For the title and inspiration, Lattimore's mind returns to the island of Hvar in Croatia, where she first saw those silver ladders at the water's edge. "There's a big old hotel there called the Hotel Arkada, and you could tell it had been hosting holiday-goers for decades in a great way. I walked around the lobby and the empty ballrooms and it looked like a well-worn, well-loved place. My friend Stacey who lives there told me to `say goodbye to Hotel Arkada, it might not be here when you get back' and I heard soon after that it was actually going to be renovated in a very crisp, modern way." Lattimore became fixated on the ingredients that make a place special _ for Hotel Arkada, the patinaed chandeliers, the patterned bedspreads, the echoes of its intangible charm _ and how when those leave this world, as they inevitably always will, it feels import - ant to memorialize them, "to bottle it for a brief second.

Through evocative, emotionally resonant music, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada , the new LP from American harpist and composer Mary Lattimore , speaks not just for its beloved namesake _ a hotel in Croatia facing renovation _ but for a universal loss that is shared. Six sprawling pieces shaped by change; nothing will ever be the same, and here, the artist, evolving in synthesis, celebrates and mourns the tragedy and beauty of the ephem - eral, all that is lived and lost to time. Documented and edited in uncharacteristically measured sessions over the course of two years, the material remains rooted in improvisation while glistening as the most refined and robust in Lattimore's decade-long catalog. It finds her communing with friends, contemporaries, and longtime influences, in full stride yet slow - ing down to nurture songs in new ways. The cast includes Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Meg Baird, Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Roy Montgomery, Samara Lubelski, and Walt McClements . "When I think of these songs, I think about fading flowers in vases, melted candles, getting older, being on tour and having things change while you're away, not realizing how ephemeral experiences are until they don't happen anymore, fear for a planet we're losing because of greed, an ode to art and music that's really shaped your life that can transport you back in time, longing to maintain sensitivity and to not sink into hollow despondency." For the title and inspiration, Lattimore's mind returns to the island of Hvar in Croatia, where she first saw those silver ladders at the water's edge. "There's a big old hotel there called the Hotel Arkada, and you could tell it had been hosting holiday-goers for decades in a great way. I walked around the lobby and the empty ballrooms and it looked like a well-worn, well-loved place. My friend Stacey who lives there told me to `say goodbye to Hotel Arkada, it might not be here when you get back' and I heard soon after that it was actually going to be renovated in a very crisp, modern way." Lattimore became fixated on the ingredients that make a place special _ for Hotel Arkada, the patinaed chandeliers, the patterned bedspreads, the echoes of its intangible charm _ and how when those leave this world, as they inevitably always will, it feels import - ant to memorialize them, "to bottle it for a brief second.

In spring 1994 Mouse on Mars contributed an exclusive piece to Sähkö Recordings’ ambient radio project, a one-week public radio program that was aired citywide in Helsinki, Finland. Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner recorded sounds in and around their studio in Düsseldorf Bilk to construct one continuous composition that spanned the course of one neighborhood walk. Midi-controlled synths, samplers, analogue effects, tape delays, effect pedals, guitars and a jew’s harp were juxtaposed with recordings captured during the walk. An additional microphone that pointed out of the studio window was occasionally dubbed into the mix. The resulting collage was broadcast just a few months before the group’s debut album Vulvaland came out and never aired again. 30 years into the band’s existence Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner revise the duo’s history by producing three LPs that would place the band’s discography under a slightly different light. Bilk marks the beginning of that investigation: a free-flowing assemblage of everything that vibrates and can be caught on tape. A 30 year old recording with subtle new edits and additions.

Recorded at the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields by Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner.
Artwork Soulis Moustakidis. Art Direction Rupert Smyth. Vinyl Master Cem Oral.

Aurora Records proudly presents Temporal Gardening, featuring
composer and performer Stephan Meidell and the baroque ensemble
Bergen Barokk
The new album will be available on vinyl and digital platforms on15th of
September 2023.
Temporal Gardening was originally a commission written in 2020 for Bergen
Barokk. The idea was to explore using early music instrumentation in dialogue
with new electro-acoustic technology. The unique and remarkable ecology grew
from pseudo- baroque music playfully reimagined, reinterpreted, disassembled,
remixed, and resampled.
The trio has been expanded with drums, functioning as speakers for the
electronic manipulations of the ensemble. A double-bass recorder vibrates a subwoofer speaker mounted inside a bass drum, and a live sampled harpsichord
sounds through cymbals, gongs, and a snare drum. Meidell himself part takes as
a musician in the performance, doing live sampling and electronic contributions.
Musician-composer Stephan Meidell is a musical adventurer who, in a nomadic
fashion, improvises his way through a plentitude of styles. Meidell's music exists
where genres dissolve into fragments that canbe picked apartand combined in
new ways. He frequently combines sounds from electronic, acoustic, and
electromechanical instruments and machines and then recontextualises them
with his finely tuned intuition and sense of detail. Meidell has a plentitude of
releases and commissions, including with Erlend Apneseth Trio, Strings &
Timpani, Cakewalk, and TRIGGER on labels such as Hubro, Clean Feed, Playdate,
and Ideophone.
Bergen Barokk was established in 1994 and is today one of Norway's leading
early- music ensembles. The group has concertized and appeared in radio
broadcasts in Europe, Russia and USA. Their recordings on Simax Classics, BIS,
Bergen Digital Studio and Toccata Classics include German, English, Italian and
French repertoire. Bergen Barokk has collaborated with several ensembles
through the recent years, some of them are Pratum Integrum (Moscow),
Norwegian Soloists' Choir and Barokksolistene (Norway). Bergen Barokk has
performed in festivals like Festspillene i Bergen, Bach Festival of Philadelphia,
Moscow Early Music Festival and Janacek International Music Festival (Czech
Republic).

A frequent collaborator of THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN writer/director Martin McDonagh’s, Academy Award®-nominated composer Carter Burwell previously worked on three of his films, starting with In Bruges. He also worked on Seven Psychopaths, as well as his Oscar-nominated score for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, their last collaboration.

For THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN, McDonagh already had, for one section of the film, a piece in mind that’s performed by a Balinese gamelan ensemble – mostly metallic instruments. Taking that inspiration, Burwell weaved gamelin instruments alongside the score’s three main instruments: the celeste – a keyboard that plays bell sounds, the harp, and the flute to create the film’s highly-acclaimed score.

“The score to Banshees is, like its slow simmering conflict, delicate and nuanced and heartbreaking all at once,” said Mondo Creative Director Mo Shafeek..” It takes small steps backwards and forwards like crashing waves on a lonely island, strings and woodwinds dancing with one another, in a waltz. The whole score plays like a dance between two overlapping voices - occasionally harmonizing, but never connecting. Occasionally beautiful, but always a bit melancholy.”

Mit der Veröffentlichung ihres neuen Albums Folkesange hat sich Amalie Bruun auf eine Reise in das Herz der skandinavischen Kultur, die ihre Kindheit geprägt hat begeben. Folkesange verzichtet auf Black Metal für eine raffinierte und doch weitreichende Beschwörung traditioneller Folklore, die alte und neue Lieder zu einem sublimen Resonanzeffekt verschmilzt.

‘Time Will Tell’ : A journey in reggae music from Bristol to Kingston JA.

Embark on the wild journey of a reggae-loving Bristolian youngster who travelled to the heart of Jamaica on intrepid mission to record a timeless reggae album in the 90s. ‘Time Will Tell’, a collaborative masterpiece uniting the extraordinary talents of Henry & Louis (Andy Scholes & Jac kLundie), Blue & Red (aka Rob Smith from Smith & Mighty) and renowned Jamaican and UK-basedv ocalists.A musical opus that infuses reggae's rich history into modern rhythms straight outta Bristol.

It all began in the summer of 1997, when Andy Scholes decided to trace the origins of reggae music straight back to its origins; armed with a 16-track reel-to-reel and an abundance of passion,he flew to Jamaica with a desire to record his reggae heroes over riddims built by Rob & Jack in Bristol.

Through a series of unexpected events Andy crossed paths with UB40 in the streets of Kingston.He built a friendship with the band and their lead singer, the legendary Ali Campbell took a ninterest in the project, generously giving Andy free access to his studio in Port Maria allowing him to bring life to ‘Time Will Tell’.

Scholes got in the studio with various Jamaican artists and recorded with Tony Tuff, Prince Green, and Johnny Clarke, each contributing their distinct voices and adding to the album's spiritual and conscious themes. The mystical vibe continued with the participation of other artists like Ghadian, Shalom, Pacey, Ben Dice, and Kerosene Oil, each bringing their own authentic style to the project.

The making of ‘Time Will Tell’ required time, dedication, and the synergy of a like-minded collective. The album embodies the warmth and transformative power of music serving as a driving force for positive change.

22 years after its initial release, the album is freshly remastered and reissued onto 12” vinyl by Dubquake Records!

Built around recordings by the acclaimed pedal steel player Henry Senior, the album's six hypnotic and enveloping tracks are supplemented with piano, strings, synths and field recordings performed by Wallis.

The making of the album took an unplanned route. During the winter 2021 lockdown, Wallis began work on an album of more conventional songs, sending several to Henry Senior (Danny & The Champions Of The World, Honey Harper) to record pedal steel parts remotely. Though subsequently deciding to shelve the album, he realised that Senior's pedal steel outlines of the songs formed the basis of something completely different.

The result is an immersive, meticulously crafted album that recalls the ambient pedal steel work of Chuck Johnson and Daniel Lanois mixed with the ethereal post- classical instrumentation of Stars Of The Lid and the field recording work of Claire Rousay.

In Huge Gesturing Loops' is Wallis' fourth release in as many years. The album's title comes from a poem by Philip Larkin. The artwork was put together by designer Luke Jarvis based on the 1930s swimming pool on Marshall Street in Soho, where Wallis swam regularly while working on the album.

Still on and about after years of the most intense crate digging, gem mining, desperate head-scratching and avid schooling, thirsty as ever for the next musical thrill to wrap our ears and brains around, here comes the fruit of our life-long love story with Japanese electronics, Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku Vol. 1 and Vol.2. From the soul-fulfilling first crush felt upon hearing the iconic soundtrack of ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’ by Ryuichi Sakamoto onto our release of Inner Science ‘Cosmo Tracks’, through the life-affirming sets of Laurent Garnier at Dijon’s seminal club, l’An-fer, which have at all times nurtured and expanded our taste for Easternmost delicacies, the influence of Japanese music on our vision and endeavours was paramount to the development of our catalogue, whether directly or indirectly.

This first volume gets the ball rolling with a fine assortment of mostly ambient, electronica and deep house-focussed joints. Draped in organic membranes and ASMR-like synth tapestries, K. Inoue’s nu-agey opener ‘Em Paz’ takes us on a ride across the most serene dreamscapes. Jazzing up these lush and oneiric coastal vibes, Gabby & Lopez ‘Drive form the Miracle’ merges a sense of Californian psychedelia with a straight out hard-bop swing. No stranger to our catalogue, Inner Science returns to serve up a crystalline slice of laid-back house on a mystique-imbued tip he holds the secret to. Flip it over and here comes Aquarium with the splendidly immersive ‘Rainy Night in Shibuya’, which very much feels like wandering amidst its neon-upholstered streets and swarming hallways in a bubble of your own.

Naohito Uchiyama treats us to a synth-drenched nocturnal ballad with the ‘80s-inflected vibes of ’Shugetsu’, whereas Keta Ra cuts a path of ethereal sublimation via the mischievously fun and bouncy balearic lounge of ‘equals’. Masterly crafted by Yuu Udagawa, ‘Infinite Possibility’ eases us in a realm where weightless pop and low-slung abstract hip-hop combine to further exhilarating effect. All in harp-driven brittleness and velveteen sub-bass stealth, Noah ‘Gemini - Mysterious Lot’ has us drifting to a lavishly orchestrated headspace, laying down an impressive work on textures and arrangements. All in on the sedated drip-tease flex, Sauce81 ’Sign of Secret Love’ is a blast of freaky hedonism, just as ready to cast its hypnotic spell down the sweatbox as it was upon its original release ten years ago.

Languid jacking house tune ’Tai+Dai’ from Keita Sano blows the winds of discoid luvin’ across the room with its impeccable balance of sharp, glimmering synthwork and driving bass onslaughts from the depths. An odd slice of reshuffled folk music, Waltz ‘Folkesta’ makes for some eerie invitation of sorts, enchanting and spookily haunting in equal measure. Back to a fevered, hip-swaying mindset, Kuniyuki hi-NRG jazz number ‘Free’ is an absolute wonder of piano and drums-driven boogie, cut from the same cloth as some of Blue Note’s finest Cuban jazz classics. Rounding off the package, Japanese legend Ken Ishii’s version of Larry Heard’s house Hall-of-Famer ‘Can You Feel It’ is pure bliss in a can, tailored to turn any crowd into a shapeless cloud of balmy euphoria and universal love, whatever the place or time.

Still on and about after years of the most intense crate digging, gem mining, desperate head-scratching and avid schooling, thirsty as ever for the next musical thrill to wrap our ears and brains around, here comes the fruit of our life-long love story with Japanese electronics, Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku Vol. 1 and Vol.2. From the soul-fulfilling first crush felt upon hearing the iconic soundtrack of ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’ by Ryuichi Sakamoto onto our release of Inner Science ‘Cosmo Tracks’, through the life-affirming sets of Laurent Garnier at Dijon’s seminal club, l’An-fer, which have at all times nurtured and expanded our taste for Easternmost delicacies, the influence of Japanese music on our vision and endeavours was paramount to the development of our catalogue, whether directly or indirectly.

This first volume gets the ball rolling with a fine assortment of mostly ambient, electronica and deep house-focussed joints. Draped in organic membranes and ASMR-like synth tapestries, K. Inoue’s nu-agey opener ‘Em Paz’ takes us on a ride across the most serene dreamscapes. Jazzing up these lush and oneiric coastal vibes, Gabby & Lopez ‘Drive form the Miracle’ merges a sense of Californian psychedelia with a straight out hard-bop swing. No stranger to our catalogue, Inner Science returns to serve up a crystalline slice of laid-back house on a mystique-imbued tip he holds the secret to. Flip it over and here comes Aquarium with the splendidly immersive ‘Rainy Night in Shibuya’, which very much feels like wandering amidst its neon-upholstered streets and swarming hallways in a bubble of your own.

Naohito Uchiyama treats us to a synth-drenched nocturnal ballad with the ‘80s-inflected vibes of ’Shugetsu’, whereas Keta Ra cuts a path of ethereal sublimation via the mischievously fun and bouncy balearic lounge of ‘equals’. Masterly crafted by Yuu Udagawa, ‘Infinite Possibility’ eases us in a realm where weightless pop and low-slung abstract hip-hop combine to further exhilarating effect. All in harp-driven brittleness and velveteen sub-bass stealth, Noah ‘Gemini - Mysterious Lot’ has us drifting to a lavishly orchestrated headspace, laying down an impressive work on textures and arrangements. All in on the sedated drip-tease flex, Sauce81 ’Sign of Secret Love’ is a blast of freaky hedonism, just as ready to cast its hypnotic spell down the sweatbox as it was upon its original release ten years ago.

Languid jacking house tune ’Tai+Dai’ from Keita Sano blows the winds of discoid luvin’ across the room with its impeccable balance of sharp, glimmering synthwork and driving bass onslaughts from the depths. An odd slice of reshuffled folk music, Waltz ‘Folkesta’ makes for some eerie invitation of sorts, enchanting and spookily haunting in equal measure. Back to a fevered, hip-swaying mindset, Kuniyuki hi-NRG jazz number ‘Free’ is an absolute wonder of piano and drums-driven boogie, cut from the same cloth as some of Blue Note’s finest Cuban jazz classics. Rounding off the package, Japanese legend Ken Ishii’s version of Larry Heard’s house Hall-of-Famer ‘Can You Feel It’ is pure bliss in a can, tailored to turn any crowd into a shapeless cloud of balmy euphoria and universal love, whatever the place or time.

Piotr Kurek’s new album “Smartwoods” is a sprawling root system of tiny melodic phrases that loop and curl around subtly evolving instrumental thickets. The Warsaw-based producer and composer takes his cues from early music, baroque music and experimental jazz, entangling his influences with filigree traces of contemporary computer music and fueling it with sonic vapors from the near future.

Made up of seven distinct segments, the album blurs its acoustic and electronic elements into an illusory hedge of abstract sound. Harp, saxophone, clarinet, double bass, voices and guitar twist into computerized processes and synthesizer chirps, creating an uncanny dreamworld where the real isn’t always what it seems. Each player is entwined with the other to create a living, breathing whole.

Like Kurek’s painterly 2021 album “World Speaks”, “Smartwoods” is also inspired by visual art - particularly the whimsical work of Algerian-French graphic designer Jean Sariano. The album cover features artwork by Polish painter Tomasz Kowalski, whose shapeshifting creatures and miniature stories aptly reflect the music’s wild fantasy. The first manifestation of “Smartwoods” – a live show at Unsound in Kraków in 2022 – featured animations by Italian artist Francesco Marrello, who put together a visual treatment for the single “Harps”.

Music composed, arranged and produced by Piotr Kurek
Anna Pašic - harp
Tomasz Duda - clarinets, saxophone, flute
Wojtek Traczyk - double bass, electric bass
Piotr Kurek - keyboards, MIDI wind controller, electric guitar
Recorded in June and November 2022 by Piotr Kurek, Piotr Zabrodzki (Studio Pasterka) and Tomasz Duda

1968’s Love Cry mixes Albert Ayler’s free jazz with a catchy combination of nursery rhythms and brass band marches, resulting in a peak example of experimental jazz of the period. This was Ayler’s last recording with his brother, Donald, who keeps the pace fiery along with the rhythm section of bassist Alan Silva and drummer Milford Graves, and harpsichordist Call Cobbs.
This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.

Gebürtig aus North Carolina, zog Jonathan Wilson schon vor gut 15 Jahren nach Los Angeles, wo er als gefragter Produzent, Multiinstrumentalist und Komponist zentrales Mitglied der Songwriter-Community wurde. Schon auf den gefeierten Alben Gentle Spirit (2011), Fanfare (2013) und Rare Birds (2018) erledigte er so gut wie alles im Alleingang, spielte fast alle Instrumente selbst ein und übernahm auch die Produktion. Kurz vor Beginn der Pandemie ging er nach Nashville, um dort im legendären Sound Emporium Studio von "Cowboy" Jack Clement das Album Dixie Blur (2020) aufzunehmen - eine Sammlung von Songs, mit denen sich Wilson sowohl klanglich als auch inhaltlich ganz klar auf seine Südstaaten-Wurzeln bezog.

Einerseits eine Rückbesinnung auf seine musikalischen Roots im US-Süden, machte er mit dem Vorgänger zugleich auch einen Schritt nach vorn, indem er auch zeitgenössische Sounds ins Spiel brachte. Als gefragter Live-Musiker regelmäßig auf den größten Bühnen der Welt zu sehen, hat Jonathan Wilson parallel zu seinen Solo Veröffentlichungen in den letzten Jahren auch als Produzent für etliche hochkarätige Kolleg:innen gearbeitet, unter anderm für Father John Misty, Margo Price, Billy Strings, Conor Oberst, Roy Harper, Dawes und Angel Olson.

Auf dem gesamten Album, hat Wilson so gut wie alle Instrumente selbst eingespielt und dazu auch die Rolle des Produzenten selbst übernommen. Während er sich unter anderem um Gitarre, Klavier, Schlagzeug und Keyboards kümmerte, schaute neben dem Bassisten Jake Blanton (The Killers) auch eine Auswahl von renommierten Streicher:innen und Bläser:innen im Studio vorbei.

Whispers is the first proper P.G. Six album since 2011"s Starry Mind. Time passes slowly, as they"ve been known to say out in the country, and before you know it, there"s a bunch of it behind you. After five releases in the first decade of P.G. Six, it may seem a bit of a surprise to have not heard something new in the past twelve years - but a cursory listen to Murmurs & Whispers will answer why, as the deep acoustic focus of the tracks imply an investment of the type of compassion and understanding that takes time and concentrated effort to conjure. Additionally, Pat Gubler"s always got a few pots going at once in his ever-expanding musical universe. He"s been active since the mid-90s, first with Memphis Luxure and Tower Recordings, then as P.G. Six, and as a member of Metal Mountains, Wet Tuna, Garcia Peoples and Weeping Bong Band. Additionally, some time was spent making collaborative records with Dan Melchior (in 2019) and Louise Bock (in 2021). Pat"s been playing the harp for more years than he"s been in bands, but when he realized that he was writing a set of songs centered around harp compositions, he spent some time in the woodshed with his instrument, a late 80s model Triplett Celtic 34 String Harp (which replaced a lovely Paraguayan harp he"d played for years previously). After the previous P.G. albums of electric band arrangements, he was in a place of writing songs with more silence in them. He ended up playing a lot of the parts himself on Murmurs & Whispers, adding guitar, bass, keyboards, recorder and hurdy gurdy, in addition to his harp and vocals. Clark Griffin and Wednesday Knudson, who Pat plays with in Weeping Bong Band, played and sang a bit themselves, and the record was recorded piece by piece in houses around upstate New York by Mike Fellows. Returning to the quiet acoustic sound of the first couple of P.G. Six albums, Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites (which has seen a much-needed reissue in the past year after too many years OOP) and The Well of Memory, Murmurs & Whispers is more straightforward in expressing its vision of rural celestial wonder. Bucolic and comfortably lived in, Murmurs & Whispers nonetheless projects the transcendent heart of P.G. Six once again, and as ever, it is magnificent to hear it passing through us.