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Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980–1988 hovers vibe–wise between two distinct poles within Light In The Attic’s acclaimed Japan Archival Series—Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 and Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976–1986. All three albums showcase recordings produced during Japan’s soaring bubble economy of the 1980s, an era in which aesthetic visions and consumerism merged. Music echoed the nation’s prosperity and with financial abundance came the luxury to dream.

Sonically, Somewhere Between mines the midpoint between Kankyō Ongaku’s sparkling atmospherics and Pacific Breeze’s metropolitan boogie. The compilation encompasses ambient pop, underground electronics, liminal minimalism and shadow sounds—all descriptors emphasizing the hazy nature of the nebula. Out–of–focus rhythms wear ethereal accoutrements, ballads are shrouded in static, and angular drums snake skyward on transcendent tones. From the Avant–minimalism of Mkwaju Ensemble and Yoshio Ojima, to the leftfield techno-pop of Mishio Ogawa and Noriko Miyamoto (featuring members of YMO), and highlights from the groundbreaking Osaka underground label Vanity Records, these are blurry constellations defying collective categorization.

These tracks also exist in a space of transition when the major label grip on the Japanese recording market began to give way to the escalation of independents. Thanks to the idyllic economic climate and innovations in domestically–manufactured music gear, creators on the edges were empowered to focus on satisfying their artistic visions in the open headspace of home studios. While labels like Warner Music and Nippon Columbia explored new sounds through traditional channels, it was possible for Vanity, Balcony and other indie labels, not to mention self–released artists like Ojima and Naoki Asai, to publish their work via affordable media such as cassettes, 7" vinyl, and flexi–discs.

Expertly curated by Yosuke Kitazawa and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab), Somewhere Between is a collection of music, much of it released for the first time outside Japan, that is bound more by energetic vibration than shared history, genre or scene. They are the sounds of transition and searching—a celebration of the freedom found in floating.

Note: The track “Days Man” by Yoshio Ojima is only available on the LP and Cassette versions.

Columbus, Ohio’s Rudolph Johnson drew comparisons to John Coltrane during his career; like the jazz legend in his later years, Johnson eschewed drugs or alcohol and spent his time every day either meditating and rehearsing on his horn. You can definitely hear
a little bit of Coltrane in Johnson’s playing on this, his 1971 debut release for the Black Jazz label, the first of two he recorded for the
imprint and the first he recorded as a leader after some sideman work (most notably for organist Jimmy McGriff); his ability to explore the upper registers and overtones of his tenor sax while retaining control is quite striking. Of course, this being a Black Jazz release, along with the bebop sounds of “Sylvia Ann” and the mid-‘60s Blue Note stylings of “Sylvia Ann,” there’s the soul jazz of “Diswa” and the groove funk of “Devon Jean,” all played by, as is typical on Black Jazz releases, by top-notch sidemen including drummer Raymond Pounds, who’s layed
with everybody from Stevie Wonder to Pharoah Sanders to Bob Dylan, and pianist John Barnes, whose work is very familiar to Motown fans (Supremes, Temptations, Marvin Gaye). Bassist Reggie Jackson, who appeared on the Walter Bishop, Jr. Coral Keys record we previously released, rounds out the quartet. First vinyl reissue of another stellar Black Jazz release!

Limited edition 12” LP - 180 gram silver marble vinyl. In response to a
world struggling with disruption and discord, Tony Tixier has instinctively turned towards his music as a way to re-establish the sundered
connections of everyday existence.
‘I Am Human’, a series of remotely records duets - available only on limitededition vinyl - was created when he returned from a sell-out US tour to find himself locked down in his Paris apartment.
An escape route appeared out of a happy combination of chances: a loan of a new piano from Yamaha and an encounter with a neighbour, David Freiss, who turned out to be an expert sound engineer. Tixier conceived a plan to spontaneously record a series of pieces, all in one take, and then send them out across the world to a chosen band of his closest musical accomplices - Scott Tixier, Hermon Mehari, Ben Leifer, Logan Richardson and Adrien Soleiman - musicians with whom he felt so closely in tune that the enforced separation of time and space could be overcome - and invited them to overdub a response to create a series of virtual duet recordings “Each track is dedicated to a friend, someone I feel close to - I sent them the track in the morning, and by the afternoon I had the track back with their parts.”
Each side of the vinyl release is opened with a performance of an original solo piece by Tixier, both recorded back to back. ‘Leaking Life’ is a meditation on the passing of time and a call to action to make the most of every day. ‘Humain’ is an expression of his own identity “A presentation of myself - I don’t see myself as mixed race - I am 100% black, 100% white, 100% human.”
Tixier has travelled the world with the likes of Christian Scott and Keyon Harrold and performed for audiences across four continents, but this is his most personal, direct work to date. Reaching out across the world, sustained by a network of friends, he has delivered a statement for our times that transcends the limitations of remote recording with the sheer force of its emotional connection. Personnel: Tony Tixier (piano), Scott Tixier (violin), Hermon Mehari
(trumpet), Ben Leifer (double bass), Logan Richardson (alto saxophone), Adrien
Soleiman (tenor saxophone)

Conjuring up lush minimal soundscapes intertwined with noise elements and hard as nails riff rock, reminiscent of some kind of weird mixture between a Mondriaan and Pollock painting, H A S T is mind-blowing, ear-blowing and heart-blowing, exploring extreme dynamics, pure simplicity and everything in between.

H A S T, founded by alto saxophone player Rob Banken, is an instrumental band rooted in jazz, heavy rock and improvisation. Their signature sound can best be described as not shying away from exploratory intellect while still maintaining passages of stunning simplicity, rock riffs and free improvisation.

Ubi Sunt (Where are... they?), is part of the Latin question "Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?". (Where are those who were before us?'). This kind of questioning evolved into a stylistic figure in medieval poetry, which was mainly used in the then popular elegies (a reference to 'Elegy', the debut album of H A S T).

Originally an expression of a sense of nostalgia, it became more and more a reflection on transience and mortality. The music on 'Ubi Sunt' was written and recorded in the middle of a the coronacrisis. Ubi Sunt: "Que sont mes amis devenus. Que j'avais de si pres tenus. Et tant ames? ..." (Rutebeuf).

Recorded, produced & mixed by Koen Gisen (Nordmann, De Beren Gieren, Flying Horseman, Dans Dans, SCHNTZL, ...) at Studio La Patrie, Ghent, BE.
Mastered by Karel De Backer.

Gatefold black 180 gram 2LP+CD & LP-Booklett

Vinyl version of the latest album (CD was released November 13th) from US singer/songwriter/composer. This is a 10 track LP featuring songs from the hit Apple TV series of the same name. Marketing activity across all media outlets.

„Lamberts Musik bricht gängige Hörgewohnheiten“ – Die Welt Lambert ist ein Unikat, und das nicht etwa nur etwa deshalb, weil er seine Musik versteckt hinter einer in
Sardinien handgefertigten Ledermaske zum Besten gibt und kein Zuhörer sein Antlitz bislang zu Gesicht bekam. Bereits mit seinem letzten Album “True” ist der Berliner Pianist und Komponist Lambert ganz anonym in die unterschiedlichsten musikalische Identitäten geschlüpft. „Die Miniaturen von Lambert, der ausschließlich mit Maske auftritt, zeugen von einem enormen Gespür für Melodien.“ – Rolling Stone Nun erscheint mit “False” bereits das fünfte Album des inspirierenden Künstlers für welches er für jedes einzelne Stück ein besonderes Alter Ego kreierte, um das Verwirrspiel um seine Identität perfekt zu machen.
Bei Lambert hat diese Verhüllung etwas poetisches, das sein meditativ impressionistisches Klavierspiel im
Niemandsland zwischen Klassik, Jazz und Pop noch etwas entrückter und verzauberter klingen lässt. Lamberts Welt ist nicht nur geheimnisvoll, sondern auch randvoll mit genialer Musik, die sich mit jedem
Titel neu erfindet. 14 neue Kompositionen mit 14 verschiedenen Gesichtern — so erweitert Lambert sein
musikalisches Schaffen um eine breite Fülle stilistischer Einflüsse.

South London-based band Soothsayers are set to release their ninth studio album 'We Are Many'. Held together by heavy basslines, solid grooves, and socially and politically charged lyrics; the album takes the listener into different sonic spaces with elements of dub, Afrobeat, improvisational jazz and electronica.

The initial steps in recording 'We Are Many' came in January 2019 when the band's founders - saxophonist Idris Rahman and trumpeter Robin Hopcraft - set out on a journey to Brazil. With executive production in the Sao Paulo studio by renowned music journalist and author David Katz, they hooked up with bass player and producer Victor Rice who they'd met sharing the bill at Freedom Sounds festival in Cologne, Germany a year earlier. Victor organised a session in Studio Traquitana, home of acclaimed Brazilian band Bixiga 70, and invited a selection of local musicians. Percussionist and singer Ligia Kamara contributed lyrics and melodies written in the studio, and drummer Bruno Buarque, guitarist Joao Erbetta and bassist Victor provided some solid, personality-driven input. Fresh and vital, what came out was a fascinating blend of Soothsayers' dub and Afrobeat mixed with distinctly Brazilian inflections.

After arriving back in the UK, Idris and Robin set about creating the remainder of the album in a different, yet complimentary way, and called on the services of Wu-Lu and Kwake at their The Room studio in South London. Things started to take shape very quickly, Wu-Lu and Kwake combining Soothsayers' music with electronic elements, while also referencing elements of the current UK jazz scene.

When lockdown hit in March 2020, there was still a lot of work to do in order to complete a full album and Robin and Idris set about working on tracks with their musicians remotely. Having time to consider the album as a whole, they found strong connections between the music recorded in Brazil and the tracks recorded in London and they set about fusing and combining these elements further into a satisfying whole.

UK based Sengalese singer Modou Toure was enlisted to guest on one track while percussionists Satin Singh and Maurizio Ravalico were engaged to help affirm a sound-world where Brazilian flavours, such as the low-end Surdo drum, were combined with sounds more readily associated with reggae and Afrobeat.

Soothsayers' three part vocal harmony is a defining factor in this album. With strong references to the vocal styles of reggae legends such as The Gladiators, Mighty Diamonds, Heptones, and Abyssinnians; it has benefited from the long-standing friendship between Robin, Idris and Julia Biel. Lyrics, melodies and harmonies were presented, discussed, explored and recorded at Idris' and Julia's home studio in Streatham in a relaxed and positive way, with concepts from social and political commentary turned into powerful songs.

Themes cover political observations of Trump and beyond alongside Brazil's president Bolsanaro (Rat Race), speaking out against increasing levels of violence from the Brazilian government towards its native and indigenous people (Love And Unity) and keeping hopeful despite the impending horrors of a no-deal Brexit (We Won't Lose Hope).

Elsewhere they discuss striving to create space for meditation and reflection against the background noise of 24/7 news and social media (Move In Silence), the daily grind (No Sacrifice) and workers' rights (Slave), while highlighting those that fall through the cracks in society and end up without a permanent address, what led to this and how close we all are from this happening (One Step Away).

'We Are Many' represents a positive and uplifting statement in the face of challenging times - the overriding force, power and positivity of the music to continue forward, pushing the boundaries of musical concepts into the future.

"Whilst heavy questions of life and death and the future of our species surround us all, music is a guide that can help us perceive the challenges in a different way - a guide that can help us towards a deep inner peace. If we listen, music can help light the way. We hope you will listen, and we hope you will experience the joy, meditative power and beauty in the connection of different musical cultures that was experienced in the creation of this album."

"On Tour" - Delaney Bramlett (g, voc); Bonnie Bramlett, Rita Coolidge (voc); Eric Clapton, Dave Mason (g); Bobby Keys (sax); Jim Price (tb); B. Whitlock (org, voc); Carl Radle (b); Tex Johnson (bgo, cga); Jim Gordon (dr)

This 42-minute-long live album, which was recorded in December 1969 in Croydon, England and was awarded 5 stars by the magazine Rolling Stone, is not only the culmination of Delaney & Bonnie’s creative output, but also marks their connection to the further careers of Eric Clapton and George Harrison. On this particular tour Clapton plays the same mixture of country music, blues and gospel that were to hallmark his own early solo appearances from 1970. He rose to the occasion with consistently brilliant virtuosity; the highlights are a dizzying solo in "I Don’t Want To Discuss It", a lengthy 'Slowhand' passage in "Only You Know And I Know", and a dry fervent introduction to the wonderfully balanced "Coming Home". Vocally Delaney & Bonnie were never better than on this live set, and the 11-piece band sounds musically more close-knit than many a quartet of the times, regardless of whether they are playing a lengthy blues number or a medley of Little Richard songs. It is certainly no coincidence that the band featured here would become Clapton’s own choice for his first solo LP, or that the kernel of this group – Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon – would metamorphose into Derek and the Dominos, or that the bulk of the band would constitute the group that would perform with George Harrison in "All Things Must Pass" and The Concert For Bangladesh, except that their playing (not to mention the recording) is better here. Half the musicians on this record attained near-superstar status less than one year later, and although their fame was fairly short-lived, this is certainly justified, as you will ascertain when you listen to this live performance.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. More information under pure-analogue.

All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: December 1969 live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon (UK), by Andy Johns and Glyn Johns

Production: Delaney Bramlett and Jimmy Miller

South London-based band Soothsayers are set to release their ninth studio album 'We Are Many'. Held together by heavy basslines, solid grooves, and socially and politically charged lyrics; the album takes the listener into different sonic spaces with elements of dub, Afrobeat, improvisational jazz and electronica.

The initial steps in recording 'We Are Many' came in January 2019 when the band's founders - saxophonist Idris Rahman and trumpeter Robin Hopcraft - set out on a journey to Brazil. With executive production in the Sao Paulo studio by renowned music journalist and author David Katz, they hooked up with bass player and producer Victor Rice who they'd met sharing the bill at Freedom Sounds festival in Cologne, Germany a year earlier. Victor organised a session in Studio Traquitana, home of acclaimed Brazilian band Bixiga 70, and invited a selection of local musicians. Percussionist and singer Ligia Kamara contributed lyrics and melodies written in the studio, and drummer Bruno Buarque, guitarist Joao Erbetta and bassist Victor provided some solid, personality-driven input. Fresh and vital, what came out was a fascinating blend of Soothsayers' dub and Afrobeat mixed with distinctly Brazilian inflections.

After arriving back in the UK, Idris and Robin set about creating the remainder of the album in a different, yet complimentary way, and called on the services of Wu-Lu and Kwake at their The Room studio in South London. Things started to take shape very quickly, Wu-Lu and Kwake combining Soothsayers' music with electronic elements, while also referencing elements of the current UK jazz scene.

When lockdown hit in March 2020, there was still a lot of work to do in order to complete a full album and Robin and Idris set about working on tracks with their musicians remotely. Having time to consider the album as a whole, they found strong connections between the music recorded in Brazil and the tracks recorded in London and they set about fusing and combining these elements further into a satisfying whole.

UK based Sengalese singer Modou Toure was enlisted to guest on one track while percussionists Satin Singh and Maurizio Ravalico were engaged to help affirm a sound-world where Brazilian flavours, such as the low-end Surdo drum, were combined with sounds more readily associated with reggae and Afrobeat.

Soothsayers' three part vocal harmony is a defining factor in this album. With strong references to the vocal styles of reggae legends such as The Gladiators, Mighty Diamonds, Heptones, and Abyssinnians; it has benefited from the long-standing friendship between Robin, Idris and Julia Biel. Lyrics, melodies and harmonies were presented, discussed, explored and recorded at Idris' and Julia's home studio in Streatham in a relaxed and positive way, with concepts from social and political commentary turned into powerful songs.

Themes cover political observations of Trump and beyond alongside Brazil's president Bolsanaro (Rat Race), speaking out against increasing levels of violence from the Brazilian government towards its native and indigenous people (Love And Unity) and keeping hopeful despite the impending horrors of a no-deal Brexit (We Won't Lose Hope).

Elsewhere they discuss striving to create space for meditation and reflection against the background noise of 24/7 news and social media (Move In Silence), the daily grind (No Sacrifice) and workers' rights (Slave), while highlighting those that fall through the cracks in society and end up without a permanent address, what led to this and how close we all are from this happening (One Step Away).

'We Are Many' represents a positive and uplifting statement in the face of challenging times - the overriding force, power and positivity of the music to continue forward, pushing the boundaries of musical concepts into the future.

"Whilst heavy questions of life and death and the future of our species surround us all, music is a guide that can help us perceive the challenges in a different way - a guide that can help us towards a deep inner peace. If we listen, music can help light the way. We hope you will listen, and we hope you will experience the joy, meditative power and beauty in the connection of different musical cultures that was experienced in the creation of this album."

- Idris Rahman and Robin Hopcraft

Trace the arc of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's evolution and it shows an accomplished musician and composer sounding ever more confident, constantly refining and broadening his sound and indulging an ever wider set of influences. Few have been as consistently brilliant, eclectic, and intimate; fewer still have done so while being defiantly, 100% independent, refusing to sign deals that compromise artistic vision. New Fragility is a continuation of this, yet it also stands apart as one his strongest collection of songs yet. Personal yet universal, New Fragility confronts numerous modern ills. 'Where They Perform Miracles', a song concerning spirituality and alternative methods of healing, harks back to Ounsworth's time as an anthropology student doing fieldwork in Mexico, while 'Dee, Forgiven' is an intimate look at what harm anxiety, and the over-prescription of certain medication, has on the vitality of youth. The song contains one of Ounsworth's strongest vocals yet - a quivering beacon that shifts from a wail to a low grumble in the blink of an eye, a remarkable expressive instrument that sits perfectly amid the understanded orchestration. For 15 years, it's been one of music's most distinctive voices, and it's never sounded as rich or poised.

LTD. BONE OPAQUE VINYL

Trace the arc of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's evolution and it shows an accomplished musician and composer sounding ever more confident, constantly refining and broadening his sound and indulging an ever wider set of influences. Few have been as consistently brilliant, eclectic, and intimate; fewer still have done so while being defiantly, 100% independent, refusing to sign deals that compromise artistic vision. New Fragility is a continuation of this, yet it also stands apart as one his strongest collection of songs yet. Personal yet universal, New Fragility confronts numerous modern ills. 'Where They Perform Miracles', a song concerning spirituality and alternative methods of healing, harks back to Ounsworth's time as an anthropology student doing fieldwork in Mexico, while 'Dee, Forgiven' is an intimate look at what harm anxiety, and the over-prescription of certain medication, has on the vitality of youth. The song contains one of Ounsworth's strongest vocals yet - a quivering beacon that shifts from a wail to a low grumble in the blink of an eye, a remarkable expressive instrument that sits perfectly amid the understanded orchestration. For 15 years, it's been one of music's most distinctive voices, and it's never sounded as rich or poised.

Der Hamburger Musiker und DJ RVDS schließt sich mit dem meditativen, ohrenschmeichelnden Klangkunstwerk "Moods and Dances 2021", einem musikalischen Geschenk aus einer Zeit, in der die Zukunft Vergangenheit sein wird, dem Label Bureau B an. Inspiriert von der sphärischen Exotik und den fantasievollen Elektroniksounds der Library Music, beschwört Richard von der Schulenburg Palmen, Pyramiden, Promenaden und Portale herauf, die vom Zentrum eines Holodecks aus beobachtet werden. Die Stücke nehmen uns mit auf eine Reise durch den wilden Geräte-Dschungel in Richards Privatstudio und lassen sich als Hommage an die Klang-Schattierungen in seiner Sammlung verstehen. Ob mit geschmolzener 303 auf dem Gipfel des Mount Acid, ob improvisierter Jazz auf den Fendertasten oder live mit Bühnen-Pathos, Richards Musik ist in jedem Fall eine eindringliche, allumfassende Erfahrung. Gut möglich jedoch, dass diese Erfahrung noch nie unmittelbarer war als auf seinem neuesten Werk.

Past Inside The Present is pleased to announce Repetition Hymns, a double album from the enigmatic Black Swan. Comprised of 19 vignettes, the relatively short tracks impart a strong forward momentum despite the 80-minute runtime. Repetition Hymns is thus particularly well-suited to the temporal distortion of quarantine, in which each day feels like an endless repeating loop. Our bleeding hearts are in need of drone like never before. In the decade since the release of In 8 Movements, Black Swan's 2010 debut, the anonymous producer has built a reputation for his unique brand of tape-based symphonic drones. While the author behind the moniker remains hidden, Black Swan is still able to surprise and captivate. The dark symphonic deconstructions of those early works have slowly evolved, making space for lighter textures and tranquil meditations on sound, expanding the palette of tones while staying true to an identity in flux.

An 11 track Netflix soundtrack released on Milan Records. Hans Zimmer has scored more than 200 projects across all mediums and has been honored with an Academy Award®, two Golden Globes®, three Grammys®, an American Music Award and a Tony® Award. Zimmer’s work highlights over the past few years include 'Widows','12 Years A Slave', 'Blade Runner 2049' and 'Dunkirk'. Netflix rotation. Specialist promo/marketing activity. This is the vinyl format (CD was released December 4th 2020).

St Leonard’s premier manipulator of drones, loops and echoes delivers his most buzzed out, kosmische and beat driven work to date in a deluxe white vinyl album release for Castles in Space.

Here, Kieran explains the genesis and production of his masterwork:

“Eternal Return was unusual for me in that I actually set out to make an album, rather than find myself with a set of tunes that evolved into a project.

The “Eternal Return” is a concept I have been inspired by before. However it clicked with me in a more profound way recently. Far from seeing the prospect of living life over, unknowingly, on an endless loop as depressing, I suddenly felt amazing comfort in the theory. The Stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” Far from being trapped in the loop I am elated to feel that it's simply about living the best life you can. One that you wouldn't fear having to live again.

To place the album in context against this newly realised perception, I think of the Side One as the battle to get to that realisation and enlightenment and Side Two represents the acceptance and the decision on how to proceed. The turning point is from thinking about the things I love most and what I would want to experience over and over again. I hope it is an uplifting listening experience. As it happens, the album originally had a darker ending. I think I actually learned a bit about my point of view during the process. There are drums, which wouldn’t often feature in my music (there are in fact more drums on this LP than in my combined output over the last 8 years) and the pieces are noticeably shorter, more focussed and concise than my usual longer form work.

Musically this album is probably the least clearly influenced by anything I regularly listened to. The main outcome was wanting to challenge myself and to add whatever the pieces needed and go with that. I think I was also probably pushed on by the wealth of amazing music being made by my peers across Bandcamp and social media. 2020 was an incredible year in this particular sphere of electronic music. The album was made as I started to transition from a semi-modular to a modular synth set up. I think that this was a key driving force, since a lot of the time I didn’t know exactly what I was doing. It is nice to be surprised by what you’re creating.

Finally, whilst this is in no way a “lockdown album”, the period of time in which much of it was recorded definitely had a bearing on how it sounds. For one thing I spent a lot more time around my studio space when working from home. In keeping with the album's theme, the lockdown also helped consolidate my feelings on what is important in life and what isn’t. One piece was in fact sketched out as a first draft while I sat on mute during a Zoom meeting.

Roly Porter returns to Subtext with 'Kistvaen'. The LP takes its name from a type of granite tomb found pre-dominantly in Dartmoor, an area in southwestern England. Scattered across the moorlands, the kistvaens were often found covered in a mound of earth and stone. They housed dead bodies, allowing them to lie facing the sun.

With 'Kistvaen', Porter speculates on the burial site as a mirror, or a gate in time. Excavating stories and images of ancient burial rituals, the record teases out similarities in emotional and social rituals between the Neolithic period and today. While a myriad of social, cultural and technological factors drastically differentiate our contemporary period and the end of the Stone Age, certain affinities may still be found in experiences of death across eras.

Venturing across histories, Porter soundtracks a moorland burial unanchored in time. Raw, unprocessed vocals are folded into field recordings made in the area, wordlessly relaying tableaus of burial rituals in Neolithic Dartmoor. 'Kistvaen' features three singular vocalists—Mary-Anne Roberts, from medieval Welsh music duo Bragod; Ellen Southern, of Bristol's Dead Space Chamber Music group; and Phil Owen, a singer and researcher in vocal traditions.

Recorded over the course of March 2020 in Bandung and Amsterdam, ‘Poe’ is a collaboration between Jonny Nash and Teguh Permana. Permana is a renowned player of the Tarawangsa, a two-stringed instrument used in the sacred Tarawangsa music of Sunda, Indonesia. Poe’, meaning ‘Days’ in Sundanese, is a meditation on death and rebirth as reflected in the passing of time and the changing of the seasons. Permana is also active in the group Tarawangsawelas who released their debut album on Morphine records in 2017.

An exploratory record that dances across time and genre, guided by fidgety miniatures and jazz inflected collage. Throughout, the band pool together their instrumental chops, moving from fluid and serpentine R&B to meditative, minimalistic piano, evoking a contrast of virtuosity and self-surrender.

While constructed from the inspiration of soul, funk and film music, BÉE mediate those influences having first digested them through the productions of Madlib & the RZA.
A sticker on the sleeve tells us Self Help “combines jazz-funk and mysticism,” a signpost to where its musical and spiritual concerns align. The jazz-funk component translates to arresting hooks in sideways song forms: echoes of Gainsbourg spooled through Azymuth-style Brazilian jazz and punctuated by the whip and snap of Steely Dan. “The Sound Where My Head Was,” the instrumental centrepiece, exemplifies present-wave jazz but also ancient sounds, giving off the mothballed air of a Hiroshi Yoshimura record in a library-music archive.

Self Help’s mysticism emerges in broad and specific ways, denoting not only a search beyond cliché and intellect but also an inquiry into the beat, the spirit, the one will. This isn’t new territory for them: Turnbull—the artist formerly known as Slim Twig, who writes and performs with U.S. Girls and various other Toronto concerns—named the group’s Nature, Man & Woman EP after the Alan Watts book. Building these songs from his drafts over three weekends at Toronto’s Palace Sound studio, the ensemble was free to tap out of the city and into some other place, taking up residence in a collective mind maze. The album produces, in equal measure, familiar surprises and the surprisingly familiar. Intoxicated jazz riffs swerve left at phantom intersections. Rhythms cut loose and tie you in knots. But wired in to each song is a sense of gentle accumulation, making every featherlight flourish weigh a ton. U.S. Girls’ Meg Remy brings serenity to “Sing a Silent Gospel,” and wears its antic melodies lightly. The soul shimmer of “Unity (It’s Up to You)” lets the players pool their R&B chops into something fluid and serpentine while, on guest vocals, the musical performance artist James Baley issues urgent declaratives: “Water must pool, as a rule, before tasted/Or else the water is wasted.” The words throughout the record complement the ensemble music while riffing on the precarious nature of unity itself. Then, closer “Extinct Commune” finds Turnbull deserted at the piano, playing phrases of meditative minimalism taking after the composer Joanna Brouk.

For all the record’s reach, it is these contrasting quiet moments that bring Self Help’s communal spirit into focus. A note on personnel: Badge Époque Ensemble now has a seventh member in Karen Ng, the saxophonist and sometime collaborator of Do Make Say Think, Feist, and others. In BÉE, Ng joins Chris Bezant and Giosuè Rosati, her bandmates in the Andy Shauf live band, as well as U.S. Girls co-conspirators Turnbull and Ed Squires, and other Torontonian cross-pollinators listed below. Guest vocalists across Self Help include Meg Remy, who sings with Dorothea Paas on the opener, James Baley, and Toronto singer-songwriter Jennifer Castle on the remarkable “Just Space for Light.” Words by: Jazz Monroe

NEP was a loose multimedia collective formed in 1982 Zagreb, ex-Yugoslavia. The founder Dejan Krsic collaborated with various artists in a quest of re-thinking the stale concepts of art history, position of the author and the barriers between pop and elitist high culture. Heavily influenced by Walter Benjamin and Andy Warhol in theory and Brian Eno and Kraftwerk in music, Krsic created NEP as an umbrella term (meaning Nova Evropa or New Europe) of diverse rule-breaking activities, covering graphic design, music, photography, video, news-media and theoretical work. Musically NEP focused on experiments in ambient and tape-music, self-released and hard to find compilation tapes like "The Cassette Played Poptones" (1988). Deeply immersed in pop-culture, politics and art theory Krsic's search for perfect pop music with cutting critical edge peaked in 1989, the year 'Decadance' track was conceived in studio. Fox & His Friends published the single in 2017 with Snuffo Remix on B-side. It received rave reviews in music press like MixMag and DJ Mag and it is still played on dance-floors around the world. But the story around the NEP is musically (as well as artistically) much wider: for the first time Fox & His Friends team compiles best cuts from unreleased and rare NEP tapes, covering the period from 1985 to 1989 on POP NOT POP abum. Dejan Krsic is now famous graphic designer and art historian in Croatia. Other collaborators include Laibach and Borghesia photographer Jane Stravs, artist and TV director Gordana Brzovic, Jovan Culibrk, now Bishop at The Serbian Orthodox Church and Anja Rupel, singer of cult Yugoslavian synth-pop group Videosex as well as the other members of Videosex, Iztok Turk and Janez Krizaj who produced some of the tracks. Other collaborators were talented producers Robert Logozar and Davor Daga Devcic, singers Linda Cooper, Natalija, Alexx Kovacs... The list of collaborations is long. Some of the memorable moments on POP NOT POP album are early demo version of Decadance 'How Do I Dance To This Music?' with blue movies samples and drum machine experiments like early Cabaret Voltaire, then Krsic's reinterpretation of legendary Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express anthem as 'Transcendance', or 'Radical Chic', where Dejan himself and Anja Rupel from Videosex make lovely couple of dandy-esque fashionistas, singing chart-friendly radio synthpop tune that contrasts the A-side (The 'NOT POP' side) - full of experiments, dark wave and industrial nods to Test Department and Cabs. B-side is 'THE POP' side that will surprise most of the NEP followers from their early experimental cassette days. Sunny, danceable, joyfull pop that reveals the many faces of NEP. As Kraftwerk today is more of a concept than a band, NEP does the same by re-writing its products (musical, graphical, theoretical, activist) and constantly puts them in permanent state of change or re-mix. In the future, only NEP logo will be enough to consider something an art piece, and NEP will be everybody who wants to, as their Art Manifest claims. Until that day comes, 'POP NOT POP' is a document of how the vivid and creative were art-scenes in socialist Yugoslavia. Some of the graphic work, cut-ups from theory and Manifesto are also included on this LP, designed by Dejan Krsic aka NEP himself. This release is made from the original master tapes and published for the first time on vinyl.

Following the 2020 release of RoundAgain, Nonesuch reissues on vinyl Joshua Redman's first album with his own band — pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Brian Blade — originally released in 1994. MoodSwing was Redman’s third recording as a band leader and his first featuring all-original compositions. The young saxophonist sought to change what he believed to be the public perception of jazz — a largely academic and overly intellectualized form of music devoid of the emotional themes that drive many other genres. As he explains in the original liner notes, jazz was seen as, “an elite art form, reserved for a sophisticated intelligentsia who rendezvous in secret.” With MoodSwing, Redman makes the case that jazz can be an accessible musical medium that could evoke basic and visceral emotional reactions.

From the playfully coy ‘Chill’ to the urgent energy of ‘Rejoice’, Redman offers up a communicative and inspired record ofemotional diversity. Joining him in this task was a young band of his peers, all of whom have since become established and esteemed figures in jazz. MoodSwing was one of the first exposures the jazz community had to young pianist Brad Mehldau, then beginning his career in Redman’s quartet. Mehldau anchors these compositions behind Redman’s lyrical playing, occasionally stepping out front to show his talents in ‘The Oneness of Two (In Three)’ and ‘Past in the Present’. The band’s rhythm section has since been recognized as one of jazz’s best, with Christian McBride on bass, and then little-known Brian Blade on the drums.

As the follow-up to his breakout Wish, MoodSwing was universally praised by critics and enjoyed commercial success, selling over 300,000 units worldwide. Entertainment Weekly wrote, ‘saxist Redman finds ingenious ways of creating a modeof acoustic jazz that is both entertaining and enlightening.’ This record continues to provide a cornerstone for Redman’s currentcareer; many of these compositions are still featured in the saxophonist’s live sets today.

Redman’s previously announced European summer 2020 tour dates with Mehldau, McBride and Blade have been rescheduled for 2021, including London’s Barbican, now on July 11.

'the commentary of the worst reality show you can imagine...Britain'

Following the recent self-titled mini album, Dead Sheeran returns with his full debut album 'A National Disgace'. Once again Dead looks at the way the country continues to spiral downwards into oblivion in his usual satirical and tourette-like way. Pianos and strings play over harsh basslines and hip hop beats, and punk rock fuses with video game soundtracks, while the lyrics paint a dark picture of the situation we find ourselves in. The album was started in the last throes of Lockdown 1, with songs such 'Can Things Get Any Worse?' 'The Problem With This Country' and the government's failed attempts at getting UK furloughed workers to get out and harvest fruit in 'Pick For Britain' narrating the crazy days of Summer 2020. As lockdown eased, and society started to erupt, tunes such as 'Kicking Off In The Streets, and 'Keep Your Distance' started to come into play. Self awareness, social media abuse, litter louts and right wing mates all come under fire over the duration of this 11 track album, with the moods changing as regular as the F-bomb gets dropped. Essential listening for these strange times.

Dead Sheeran aka Paul Catten writes, produces, mixes and plays all instruments on this. From programming beats, fiddling with synths to recording himself playing Pac-man, Dead pushes further musically than the previous release. The influences of the Sleafords, The Fall, The Streets and the many punk outfits that influence him still rumble in the distance, but make no mistake, this is a Dead Sheeran record. He has carved out his own sound and vibe on 'A National Disgrace', and as Dead will tell you, this is only the beginning…

The Begotten is the brainchild of Jürgen De Blonde (Köhn/de portables) and Brecht Ameel (Razen), who initially performed a number of shows and released a CS under the moniker 'Kohier' - gleefully referencing the absurdity of Belgian tax systems and institutions.

On their debut LP "Temidden Laaghangende Wolken" they are joined by percussionist and improv-veteran Dirk Wachtelaer (Pablo's Eye/Vanishing Pictures), who locked with De Blonde and Ameel's post-reality continuum during a recording session at Les Ateliers Claus in Brussels. In this new trio format, The Begotten weaves a stripped-down set of after-hours, trancey observations on keys, baritone guitar and drums. Neon-lit bars are named Le Kheops or 60 Moons, streets are soaked in sheets of rain, people are staring at tax sheets and comets pass by unnoticed. Dub with tears; "Temidden Laaghangende Wolken" is the perfect backdrop of a strongly medicated game of Manillen during a 'Derrick' rerun.

Ecstatic Meditations’, the follow up to 2016’s acclaimed debut solo outing ‘Interludes’, features six beautifully crafted new tracks leading with an edit of the 20 minute album opener and lead track ‘Journey In Ecstasy’. An adventurous deep listening experience, the new collection was recorded, mixed and mastered by Furse at his electronic studio on the Margate coast.
A sonic tapestry of sound that takes inspiration from the likes of Alice Coltrane, Laraaji, Eno and Steve Reich together with a new found appreciation for Japanese environmental music composers such as Akira Ito and Yasauki Shizimu. The result is an intense yet playfully refreshing take on ambient and electronic music.

M.S.W. brings together key components from his work in solo projects HELL and CLOUD to come to terms with topics of intense personal struggle.
Here in his first album under his given name, we hear the familiar melodic atmosphere of Cloud coupled with intense, somber doom of Hell for a new sonic experience that is familiar but altogether its own entity of great despair.

This reissue of ‘Stan Getz Meets Oscar Peterson’ includes one bonus track from the same session produced by Norman Granz in 1957. With Getz on tenor saxophone and Peterson on piano are guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown.
The specially prepared liner notes are by Penguin Guide to Jazz’s writer Brian Morton and by France’s prestigious Jazz Magazine. “Even though summit meetings don’t always end up with the expected results, this one, on the contrary, marks the blend of one of the most beautiful saxophone sounds in history with the most dazzling bouquets of notes ever imagined on a piano keyboard.” Jazz Magazine

When Ajax Tow travels in his Pop Western landscapes, you can be sure there’s always a perfect 70’s road trip soundtrack. Italians cowboys meeting the legendary Miriam Makeba in Rennes suburbs... For his 3rd album The Soul Vegetable Orchestra, Ajax Tow is bringing us on a ten tracks sonic adventure, where many inspirations and references collide. The succession of tracks inspires many feels and moods from sipping a good old bourbon, dance in the kitchen, or gallops though the plains of Napoli.

We can found the influence of Danger Mouse paying hommage to the late Ennio Morricone (Roma, 2011), a cinematic side of Shawn Lee and Misha Panfilov, from music library à la Jean-Claude Vannier to the Band Voilaa, a little glimpse of pimped Ninja tune, a Reworked organic Mo’Wax vibe, all mixed up and spiced up with a Tricky style.

This album is also the result of a collaboration with Dan Voisin (Modul-Club, Eighty…) at the production and drums with Rennes city scene musicians who gives a hand on this album: Romain Baousson (Coupe Colonel, Bikini Machine…) on drums, Sax Machine and Racecar (Saxtoys Records) on horns and vocals, Dj Marrrtin (Funky Bijou, Lord Paramour) on beatmaking, Medline (My Bags) on Flûte.

As a special guest, the late and legendary Miriam Makeba appears on “Magic Miriam”. “Feel it” is definitely setting a west coast on the LP with a Jurassic 5 inspiration, accompanied by a spicy rhythm, MC Racecar (Sax Machine) flows and lyrics brings even more energy to the track. On “Movie” and “Silence”. Ajax Tow give us a nice taste of his favorite psychedelic blends, romantic and intimate at the same time, where we found back Fuzz guitar with 60’s Eric Clapton style (Cream era) and Pink Floyd synths Flavors. The cinematic style and first notes of “So What” reminds Air first EP and the beautiful bass of “Melody Nelson”. For the dessert, “Smallville” is a kind of wedding cake with 70’s loops sprinkling that brings us to Phillipe Sarde’s La Grande Bouffe soundtrack, but with a more contemporary feeling.

Tibor Szemző returns with a new album, based on the music for his film about historic figure Alexander Csoma.

Tibor Szemző is a Hungarian composer, performer, media artist. Recently his album Snapshots From The Island (1987) gained renewed interest. Over the years Tibor Szemzo continued composing classical / electronic works. His pieces often include spoken texts, film and other media. He creates installations and composes music for his own and others’ films.

Csoma, his new album, is based on the music for this film about Alexander Csoma. Alexander set up to research the origin of the Hungarians 200 years ago. During his student years, before he enrolled in college, he and two fellow students vowed to go to Central Asia to discover the origins of their nation. In the first thirty-five years of his life, he spent his humble pilgrimage in Asia traveling and studying with Buddhist priests in Tibet in isolation, and devoted the remaining eleven years of his life to publishing some of the material he had collected in India.

Now on the 200th anniversary, Szemző’s Cinematic Opera wishes to pay tribute to Alexandar Csoma. Over the course of two vinyl sides classical and acoustic instruments are mixed with angelic voices, spoken word in German, Hungarian & English. Sounding like vintage Tibor Szemzo compositions, vividly performed by the Gordian Knot Company and the Voces Aequales Ensemble.

William Basinski's reputation as the foremost producer of profound meditations on death and decay has long been established, but on his new album, Lamentations, he transforms operatic tragedy into abyssal beauty. More than any other work since The Disintegration Loops, there is an ominous grief throughout the album, and that sense of loss lingers like an emotional vapor. Captured and constructed from tape loops and studies from Basinski's archives - dating back to 1979 - Lamentations is over forty years of mournful sighs meticulously crafted into songs. They are shaped by the inevitable passage of time and the indisputable collapsing of space - and their collective resonance is infinite and eternal.

Early summer 2019, João Lobo started recording his compositions at les Ateliers Claus in Brussels, with guitarist Norberto Lobo, bassist Soet Kempeneer and recording engineer Christophe Albertijn. The recording sessions were planned over the course of one week, however the job was mostly done in just a few takes. With the addition of some overdubs, the whole process was finalised in a spontaneous wave. It is too simplistic to define Joao Lobo’s compositions with one term, and the association of the album “Simorgh” with this ingenious partnership’s new creations, is inevitable.

While the mix of genres and styles may be easy to distinguish, the focus centres on the result of the mixing: a highly grooving and an occasionally paused and introspective music that seems out of time and out of space. It is difficult to grasp or define a specific period in time or a geographic origin in this fusion of references, as what you listen to is a bold creation of original and surprising elements. Drummers – such as João Lobo – employ a multi-layered concept in their music, weaving the different tracks into a linear wash of sound. He plays the song with the drum set while the other members fly in and out of the compositions, always gathering around their phoenix in order to attain enlightenment.

What João Lobo and many of his contemporaries are up to, can be explained through simple terms as a future exploration of the emotionally expressive possibilities of sound. It breaks away from the conventional order providing space for the discovery of a new order. Simultaneously it allows a more profound and broader expression of what the current reality of music is and represents. It was instantly clear for me that we had to share his music with our audience and create this medium for happiness.

This release is the trio’s debut record, which is the impetus for their personal development in the realisation that features João as a mentor in the creation process. The featured compositions highlight the musicians’ unique physical aspect to control their instruments and their hidden techniques that underlying these tracks. The result is an ongoing aural interplay. It was love at first sound.

This album is a co-release between Les Albums Claus and Shhpuma.

On her third album Welsh Music Prize winner Georgia Ruth returns to her roots. Having moved back to her native Aberystwyth ‘Mai’ was recorded in the town’s Grade-II listed Joseph Parry Hall over the course of one week in Spring 2019. Named after the renowned composer and professor, the room was used as a venue for chamber concerts throughout the twentieth century and offered musicians a view of the sun setting over the castle as they worked.

But despite this setting Mai (meaning May) is an intimate collection of songs written from within the depths of a house during stolen moments. At its heart sits a beautiful and simple setting of Eifion Wyn’s poem – ‘Gwn ei ddyfod, fis y Mel’ (I know it’s coming, month-of-honey).
Mai is a meditation on finding hope and renewal in the seasons, in a world where the certainty of Spring feels increasingly fragile.

The album was produced with Iwan Morgan (Meilyr Jones, Cate Le Bon, Richard James) who also engineered mixed and mastered. Additional parts were recorded at his studio in Liverpool. With improvised strings, pedal steel and saxophone sitting alongside harp, the album presents a sound which is both lush and sparse in turn.

Following the November 20th 2020 release on CD and digital, Fogerty’s Factory is now being made available on vinyl.
This album is a ‘time capsule’ of the Fogerty’s Factory sessions that John Fogerty and Family have been sharing on YouTube and with various media during lockdown.
All tracks were recorded since the beginning of March 2020, and feature John along with his children, Shane, Tyler and Kelsy Fogerty. Shane and Tyler together are BMG frontline signing Hearty Har.
Seven of the tracks have never been available commercially before - the other 5 have only been made available digitally as part of the Fogerty’s Factory EP released in May 2020.

Here is a brand new single from the Radikal Guru's 4th studio album 'Beyond The Borders'. 'Do The Right Thing' features italian vocalist Marina P mainly known for her previous works with Mungo's Hi Fi. Her soulful lyrics are touching on social struggles that we are facing today in our communities. On the musical side Radikal Guru comes with meditative basslines, melodic patterns and arrays of echo chambers and 808's. Backed by two roots style vinyl exclusive remixes made by the Guru himself.

Wer nach einer Beschreibung für Mario Rom's INTERZONE sucht, stößt unweigerlich auf Superlative. "Mario Rom spielt Soli, die in Europa ihresgleichen suchen - ruhig, beharrlich, ideenreich, virtuos" schrieb beispielsweise die ZEIT. Die Süddeutsche Zeitung ging sogar noch einen Schritt weiter: "Rom spielt Trompete, als hinge sein Leben davon ab. Was Interzone an Einfällen und Inspirationen in einen einzigen Titel packen, davon füttern andere Instrumentalisten ihre gesamte Karriere." Solch euphorische Reaktionen von einigen der wichtigsten Vertretern des deutschsprachigen Feuilletons sind gewiss keine Selbstverständlichkeit für eine Österreichische Band mit einem Altersdurchschnitt von knapp über 30 Jahren. Und wirklich hat das aus Mario Rom, Lukas Kranzelbinder und Herbert Pirker bestehende Dreiergespann binnen kürzester Zeit ungewöhnlich große Aufmerksamkeit von Publikum und Medien rund um den Globus erhalten. So schreibt beispielsweise der Hauptkritiker des renommierten Rochester Jazz Festivals in New York nach einem Konzert des Trios von "einem der unterhaltsamsten und spannendsten Acts des diesjährigen Festivals" und geht sogar so weit zu behaupten, er habe "noch nie, egal wo auf dieser Welt, eine Gruppe von Musikern gehört, die - im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes - so unglaublich miteinander spielen' wie dieses Trio."

Second album release on Columbia Records from US hip hop/drill/rapper/singer/songwriter/producer. A 16 track double LP set on black vinyl. Collaborators include Juice WRLD and Lil' Baby. Specialist promo/marketing activity across all media outlets. The album reached #2 in the US Billboard charts when released earlier this year.

DAUW present the release of What the Fog, the second album of David Allred & Peter Broderick. The album is a follow-up of their first full-length LP Find the Ways, which was released through Erased Tapes in 2017.

The music itself was originally composed as a soundtrack for an 11-hours slow motion journey in the Louvre museum in Paris. The title, #monalisa, can be interpreted as a new way of perceiving art through technology and social media such as Twitter or Instagram. The movie is directed by Jennifer Anderson and Vernon Lott and tries to make us more aware of the presence of technology in our lives as well as the way we experience an exhibition or art itself. The album is a 42-minutes extraction of the 11-hours journey they went through. Each track is built in a way that makes it possible for the listener to travel from one place to the other, as if you were walking in the museum yourself. In that way, the record can even be perceived as a music documentary.

Being completely instrumental, What the Fog distinguishes itself from their first album in which the voices of both artists held a central place. Nevertheless, in line with an earlier observation from Clash Magazine, the music still combines minimalism and serenity to construct intense pieces of music.

“It presents a moment of calm that uses sparsity to create something quietly intense.” (Clash Magazine on their debut album)

Born in Maine, raised in Oregon, Peter Broderick learned to play several instruments such as piano, banjo and violin. In 2007 he joined the Danish ensemble Efterklang on their tour and had numerous collaborations with artists such as Machinefabriek and Nils Frahm. His most recent release Blackberry was released this August through Erased Tapes. It marked his first vocal album in 5 years and once again showed the variety in his ever growing repertoire.

In a relatively short period of time, Portland-based musician and multi-instrumentalist David Allred showed his songwriting capabilities through several releases on Oscarson and Erased Tapes. Besides his own music, he played as a session musician for several artists and ensembles such as Heather Woods Broderick, Masayoshi Fujita and The Beacon Sound Choir. His most recent album Felt the Transition sees the light late December 2020 through Erased Tapes.