Suche:perception

“Somaesthesia” is for the body, for how the body feels and how the body communicates with its soul. It was written through a year of growth and sickness, which stimmed inflection to a body at rest, a body aroused, a body communicating needs, a body happy, a homeostatic body, a friend body.

These four songs drift through different dimensions of somatic sensation. Deep corporal sensuality, spectrums of control of self, identity, and their relation to others, plateau, release, extra sensorial touch, extraterrestrial encounter, novelty, experiment, finding self where you thought you stood alone, finding self in bass, basing self in body.
Do not disembody, hold closeness to body, trust body, body as a litmus, body as a truth, truth as unmovable, unmovable as grounded, rooted, dense body, flesh body, REAL body, this is your body, feel your body feel.

Somaesthesia: the faculty of bodily perception; sensory systems associated with the body; includes skin senses and proprioception and the internal organs

Dynamite cuts 45s series is proud to release two gems from the Perception label both First time on 7” vinyl. Taken from the hard to find John Bartel LP which was released 1971, these two bangers, needed to be part of the DC series, classic and unknown drum samples.
A - “Boogie” is super heavy funk n Jazz dj dancer.
B - “You’ve just been bitten” Great mid-tempo vocal funk groove, with lots of drum break

Following a hugely successful inaugural release, Sangiuliano’s forthcoming “Sound Of Space” EP was quickly circulated across the festival scene, with the title track becoming one of the most hotly-tipped Track IDs of the summer. Continuing the label’s strong undercurrent of evanescence, Sangiuliano’s second chapter explores the effects of space and physical surroundings on our experience of music. Space is a concept we continuously interact with in music, whether we live it subconsciously or not. It’s a vital component in our perception; altering the expression of the music to the listener’s surroundings and functioning as an interactive field. Before the development of recording equipment & technology, music’s environmental characteristics were defined by the space in which it was performed, and as such, Enrico’s latest offering aims to revive this practice in music. To wholly pervade the senses and demonstrating this concept first hand, the 2-tracker will be also available in spatial audio, giving listeners a 360-degree infiltration of sound

Meiosistosis is a unique and creative descriptive innerstanding created by DemoDc taken from the scientific terminology of Mitosis - a splitting of one cell to create 2 identical cells and Meiosis - a splitting of 1 cell to create 4 very unique cells. Combining these 2 findings to create its own unique expression of what Demo feels earth herself is potentially going through in what most humans refer to as 'crazy mad' times.

‘Call me mad or crazy yet my artistic take on all this madness of change, coming from a more spiritual aware perspective, I feel its very possible and plausible that earth herself is shifting from an energetical vibrational frequency resonance, shifting from a lower to a higher frequency that has souls who inhabit at this present time on Earth, have choices made available to either shift to these higher frequencies of perception or to chose to remain in the lower frequencies of perception’

….says Demo when explaining the meaning of the titles chosen for his brand new releases. Hence, from this perspective it would give more purpose and meaning with the Earth splitting itself from 1 earth into 2 with the merging of it being identical and unique all at once.

True or not, through creative expression can we all individually make sense in our own rights, which then gives more power to the inner-standing of what co-creating with any greater power outside of ourselves, is. Each track holds its own unique expression to what has been described here and of course gives each listener a chance to give meaning to what is embraced in their own connection made when absorbed in the creations these ep's offer.

SAISEI founder Junki Inoue continues his vital archival work uncovering the riches of Japan’s distinctive electronic music scene and bringing them to new audiences around the world.
The PMA EP compiles four dynamic tracks recorded around 30 years ago by the duo of Shigeru Nakamura (drums/vocals) and Mikio Kato (synths) aka B-2DEP’T.

Nakamura and Kato’s first album as B-2DEP’T, Products Plus, appeared on cassette in 1993 on Trigger Records, the predecessor label to Transonic (given a retrospective on SAIS004). Its bright yellow and blue retro-futurist artwork – which is echoed in the design for this reissue on SAISEI – matched the sounds held within: inventive, out-of-the-box dance music blending overseas influences with an idiosyncratic Japanese sensibility.
Two tracks from Products Plus appear on this EP, All tracks re-edited by Junki Inoue and regular collaborator Yuzo Iwata for vinyl extended play and available now for the first time on vinyl. ‘Clockwork Giant Panda’ appearing in a version co-produced with Yoshinori Sunahara (ex - Denki Groove), merges a breezy US house groove and bassline with twinkling, almost parodic Japanese keys that act as a kind of meta commentary on Western perceptions of Japan (a concept pioneered by Yellow Magic Orchestra). The two parts of ‘BSMH’, or Body Sonic Mental Health from ‘Products Plus’, were originally remixed by Daishi Hisakawa of Tanzmuzik, who draws on darker sounds from Europe and the UK: restless Depeche Mode synth harmonies spiral above a pacy EBM pulse, with robot vocals intoning the titular slogan. The package is completed by the unreleased track ‘PMA’, whose driving, bass-heavy mood falls somewhere between Sheffield bleep and the ambient techno of early Biosphere.

SAISEI is a Japanese word which translates to ‘reproduction’ and ‘to play’ (as in playing records). Japanese culture is widely known for its traditional nature just as much as it is for being forward into the future and this label’s concept does justice to exactly that. Having started digging for records as early as 16 years old, Inoue delved into productions from 1990s Japan to uncover these native gems. SAISEI’s core concept is to recapture and reintroduce unique pieces of Japanese electronic music onto vinyl, to an audience it never reached before as most of this music was only released in Japan.

First striking us with his exhilarating ‘Yakka’ EP, Bambi OFS has continued to surprise us with his musical output ever since. (…) The Belgium-based producer is carving out an almost unique take on dance music with a heavy debt of gratitude to the endless rhythms and percussion-centric styles of Gamelan, and other styles of music native to Indonesia and further afield (…) the revised ‘Kwon-9’ EP goes for the jugular and ties together the percussion-heavy originals on vinyl alongside phenomenal remixes from Don’t DJ, Georgia, Icon Template and Broken English Club.” Inverted Audio Super excited to bring this killer release on vinyl with a brand new remaster and remixes by Broken English Club, Georgia, Don’t DJ and Icon Template! Meshing together industrial mirages and ethnofictional mindscapes, Bambi OFS provides Antibody with a new suite of polyrythmic spins. Extending on his first ep YAKKA, KWON-9 blurs the line between the synthetic and the organic while pushing the Brussels-based producer’s interest in uneven grooves and mixed meters into sharper detail. Mirrored by the puzzling archaic-futuristic alphabet featured on the cover, this new set of trax softly draws the listener in an elusive and multi-faceted experience. Bambi OFS is Cédric Dambrain, composer, electronic musician and virtual instruments designer based in Brussels, Belgium. Dambrain’s approach to music is motivated by an exploration of perception thresholds, psychoacoustics, and the physiological impact of sound. This diversity of themes is matched by a wide range of productions which include electroacoustic computer music, compositions for ensembles, noise, sound installations and, more recently, club- oriented polyrythmic explorations. Dambrain has also been composing extensively for performance artists and music theatre.

This music was composed for SKALAR, an audio-visual kinetic art installation by light artist Christopher Bauder & Kangding Ray SKALAR is a large-scale art installation that explores the complex impact of light and sound on human perception. Created by light artist Christopher Bauder and musician Kangding Ray, this monumental artwork is a reflection on the fundamental nature and essence of human emotions. By combining a vast array of kinetic mirrors and perfectly synchronized moving lights with a sophisticated multi-channel sound system, SKALAR offers an audio-visual narration of radiant light vector drawings and multi-dimensional sound in enormous pitch-dark spaces. SKALAR is an intense journey through the cycle of basic human emotions. Everchanging tonalities trigger the full spectrum of emotional experiences using light, sound, and motion. The feelings of awe, surprise, exhilaration, and anticipation of having one’s senses overwhelmed are created, explored, and repeated in cycles throughout the piece, providing a collective, yet highly individual emotional experience. Light and darkness as endless cycles of day and night define our perception of time and influence our emotions. SKALAR is a central piece within light artist Christopher Bauder’s body of work, reflecting his deep fascination with light. In this gigantic installation, light is treated as a solid material that can be dimensionally sculpted and shaped, evoking abstract emotional associations. Intertwined with the tireless exploration of textures, rhythm, and sound design by musician and composer Kangding Ray, the silence of darkness is filled with iridescent forms of spatial light and sound. The original composition is spatialised in 360° over a 12 channels sound system, this stereo version has been mixed and mastered to convey a similar sense of space.
As of the release of this record, SKALAR has been presented in Berlin (Kraftwerk) in 2018,
in Mexico City (Frontón) in 2019 & in Amsterdam (Gashouder) in 2020. Fore more information about the piece and its concept, please visit skalar.art

Hidden in a world of anonymity we are craving for intimacy.

AI. The second output in the MAT editions series on CLIKNO is a double 12" separated into "Anonymity" and "Intimacy". The digital world and social media in particular change our perception and behavior; our values and morals undergo a transformation and
shift. How much are we still anonymous? How much are we still intimate (with us/with others)? What does anonymity and intimacy mean to us today?

MUSIC. Dr.Nojoke shows on AI his deeper, darker and trippier side.

A. Petar Plet Plete is a Bulgarian tongue twister sung by anonymous voices, which hypnotize through endless repetitions over a straight Maurizio-esque groove with odd melodic percussion. Nivin grooves elegantly with typical Dr.Nojoke clicks and sophisticated loops of a mysterious female voice reminding slightly to Kraftwerk's Man-machine era.

I. EOW and Nuknot are both intimate orgies of thick textures of reverberations and reflections as if space is folding in itself and time is on hold. EOW seduces with a heavy kick-drum groove and a triplet bassline underneath crawling through unconscious memories. Woe! Nuknot is carried by transcending atmospheres, a dubby low end bassline and a repetitious glassy sound, that can drive a crowd into madness - inspired by Moritz von Oswald and Deadbeat. Nuknot ends with an ambient lock groove.

ART. CLIKNO curates artworks from living artists. On MAT ed.02 CLIKNO is proud to present digital artist Lucas Gutierrez and his work "Your Mesh.sgl", originally part of the exhibition - Knowledge Of - at Aperto Raum Berlin, 2017. An exhibition and dialogue exploring the term "knowledge" and the manner in which self-studies are structured within contemporary artistic approach.

TEXT. MAT02 comes with writings to anonymity and intimacy from the Danish philosopher, actress and choreographer Marianne Kjaer Klausen.

The album celebrates also the 15th CLIKNOversary of Dr.Nojoke.

Berlin club and party-starters Sameheads return to black wax on April 10th with “ZEUG!”, a 4-track EP from various celebrated artists, who join forces in new and unheard ways for a stack of outernational and spaced-out dancefloor jams for creative dance floors worldwide and beyond.

Berlin-based CROSSLUCID, AKA Sylwana Zybura and Tomas C. Toth, have delivered another stunning example of their perception-bending otherworldly viewpoint with the artwork for the release. A purely analog production, fusing clever lighting tricks, hand-made props, and a healthy dose of shaving foam and dry ice… This “Cult of the Cosmic Swamp” chimes with the weird tribal rhythms contained on the record.

First up is Mameen 3 (a side-project from Brussels selector DJ Sofa) & Romanian pioneer Rodion G.A with ‘Planet Cluj’, a suitably off-world excursion through a fun-packed disco hall in some far-off colony where layered synths are stacked, elements seeping through one another to form a mesh of groove.

Anatolian Weapons’ cosmic fireside ritual, ‘Chant 3’, heats up the A2 with vibrant and punchy percussion loops woven together with a worldwide chorus of chanters. Building continuously, the tough workout is dosed up with a bassline saturated in attitude for a high-energy finish.

Picking up on the B side are KRENG (a morphic form composed of Don’t DJ and Dane Close), who slow the pace down with a latticed beatwork combining robust dance formulas and blasting syncopation. Letting the rhythm do the legwork for the first half of the track, the pair then pour out a sludged mess of grime-infused bass over the percussive chaos.

Silvia Kastel and Wilted Woman close proceedings as SHAKEY with a dubwise workout that straddles b-side house obscurity and stoned live dub improvisation: steel drums patter at the windows of Paradise Garage as Larry Levan fights off the vampires alongside Scientist.

The release is celebrated at Sameheads on April 10th with an extremely rare live show from Rodion G. A., an appearance from INVERSIONS label owner Milo Smee, and a b2b from Don’t Dj & Dane Close. Limited to 300 pieces, this record will find a home in the stacks of DJ’s willing to step outside genre and convention.

Discográfica 71 is a new record label which explores the borders of our beings through sound, movement and perception, a landscape full of darkness, strong and experimental shades.

The first reference of the label will be handled by Some Science, after his previous work, 'The Universe of Gödel', the duo returns to the scene with 'Shapeshifters', three-tracker EP, where they express their purest sound, a landscape full of darkness, strong and experimental shades,where they show their 'inner chaos' and their more inspirational
moments.

Italian sound artist Giulio Aldinucci returns with his 5th album on Karlrecords: "Materia" is unsurprisingly a truly masterfully composed and sound-designed ambient masterpiece that adds perfectly to a series of critically acclaimed albums like “Disappearing In A Mirror” (2018) or “Shards Of Distant Times” – some of which made it onto several year’s best lists.

Giulio Aldinucci is an Italian composer and sound artist from Siena, Italy. His work focuses on ambient and experimental music, blending field recordings, electronic processing, and acoustic elements. Active since the early 2000s, he has released several solo albums on international labels including Karlrecords, Home Normal, and 99chants. His compositions often explore themes of memory, perception, and the relationship between sound and place.

Aldinucci's music is characterized by immersive, multilayered textures and meticulous attention to sonic detail. He constructs expansive soundscapes by integrating processed environmental recordings, choral elements, instrumental timbres, and subtle harmonic shifts. His style draws from both the aesthetics of contemporary ambient and the techniques of electroacoustic music, resulting in works that are at once atmospheric and conceptually grounded. The interplay between organic and synthetic sound sources is central to his approach, blurring the boundaries between the natural world and the constructed sonic environment.

His works have been presented at international festivals. He has also created art installations and multidisciplinary performances. In addition to his solo output, Aldinucci has collaborated with a wide range of musicians and artists, developing projects that intersect sound art, composition, and performance.

Aldinucci about "Materia": "Materia focuses on the idea of sound as a matter, which can be shaped into complex forms by removing excess material from the sound mass.The album originates from the dichotomy between accumulation and subtraction, creating compositions out of frequency-dense audio material in order to unearth what is “hidden” inside the raw sound mass. Unlike sculpture, in music time can be matter too by shattering sounds into milliseconds andrecompose them with a different fragments order, going beyond the traditional notions of rhythm and duration.“

House of Groove presents Marc Cotterell’s “Connection”*, now pressed on a limited edition marbled vinyl. Known for his signature garage and soulful sound and for his work through Plastik People, Marc delivers a record built for the dancefloor, with six cuts selected from the full project. Side A A1. Connection With You (Plastik Vocal Mix) A2. Connection (Plastik Vocal Mix) A3. Smooth Groover (Yambow & Cotterell Mix) Side B B1. Connection With You (Roméo Louisa Remix) B2. Connection With You (Baka G Remix) B3. Quicksand (ZAV Club Piano Mix) From the warm groove of **Smooth Groover** with Yambow to Roméo Louisa’s peak time interpretation, Baka G’s remix and ZAV’s piano driven club mix, the record moves between garage, soulful house and pure club energy while keeping Marc Cotterell’s identity at its core. Pressed on a striking clear and white marbled vinyl with black splatter, each copy has its own unique visual character. Mastered by Benoit Daudin at Perception Mastering. Marc Cotterell, Connection Limited Edition Vinyl House of Groove

»Cosmogonical Ears« is Amosphère's first album for Hallow Ground. Following her contribution to the Swiss label’s »Epiphanies« compilation and her 2021 full-length debut »More Die of Heartbreak« on 33-33, it features three expansive pieces. The Paris-based composer and multidisciplinary artist delves deeper into themes of time, space, cosmology, human perception, and psycho-physical effects, crafting profound sonic meditations. Drawing on a minimalist approach while blending electronic and acoustic elements, Amosphère’s long-form compositions are living, breathing entities whose sonic richness and evocative power unfold gradually over time, putting »Cosmogonical Ears« in direct kinship with previous Hallow Ground releases by artists such as Kali Malone and FUJI|||||||||||TA.

The album opens with its longest piece, »Land of eternal delight,« composed for the Buddha10 exhibition at the Museo d'Arte Orientale in Turin. Written during three years of isolation—a period in which Amosphère explored meditation practices and diverse belief systems—it merges mythology with personal transcendental experiences, reflecting on a challenging time for humanity. »By blending Buddhist philosophy and sculpture with my own meditation practices, I sought to explore a way for people to transcend the boundaries of space and time—not as a believer, but as an observer,« she explains. Featuring handmade ceramic instruments and recorded by Thomas Lefevre, the piece combines Amosphère’s electronic organ with Marc Lochner’s flute contributions, creating a sound that is simultaneously minimalist and expansive.

The concept of teleportation and how it challenges traditional notions of time and space serves as the foundation for the second piece. »Recent advances in quantum physics suggest that teleportation might be possible through quantum entanglement,« Amosphère notes. »What if science fiction is becoming reality—or has already existed in ancient times?« Drawing inspiration from theories proposed by physicists such as Roger Penrose, Amosphère again worked together with flutist Lochner, this time using her VCS 3 synthesizer. »Teleportation« weaves single notes into intricate, non-linear patterns that defy conventional logic, creating a complex auditory tapestry. The last piece »Black hole in, white hole out« was recorded on Corsica and features Miao Zhao’s bass clarinet drones alongside Amosphère’s church organ. It imagines the possible sound of crossing a black hole while also suggesting the study of its theoretical exit and its potential applications for large-scale time and space travel.

The questions posed by »Cosmogonical Ears« do not yield straightforward answers. Instead, Amosphère’s restrained yet intricately layered compositions require full immersion and concentration from the listener. As expressed by the album’s title—which envisions the birth of a new universe through listening—»Cosmogonical Ears« offers an experimental approach to auditory perception as a tool for seeking truth, freedom, and harmony between the outer world and the inner self.

Clear Vinyl


Her sound remains vast and yearning, with gut-punch drums pushing through explosions of colored powder; her voice is a chrome-plated sigh, and her agile melodies soar effortlessly. - Pitchfork *BEST NEW MUSIC*
she achieves some serious cinematic grandeur. - Stereogum
Simply too sublimely crafted to ignore. - Consequence of Sound
A catchy ethereal piece of pop - Brooklyn Vegan
Rose's layered, reverb-laden vocals hit like waves of sunlight, warming her lines almost to the point of wordlessness. - Paste Magazine


"Hila. A record about loss. What persists beyond the range of ordinary perception? The place mourning keeps returning to - not quite transcendence, not quite doubt. The edge of what we can see."
Frankie Rose has spent fifteen years building one of the most quietly distinctive bodies of work in American independent music. Bursting out of the shackles of her legacy on 2024's Love As Projection, 2026's Hila builds on the muscular, dance-ready songwriting and transcendent melodies to result on Rose's most exploratory and affecting record of her career. Imbued with yearning melodies and brooding post-punk dynamics, Hila is Frankie Rose at her most impressionistic and expansive.

Self-produced at her home studio featuring collaborations with drummer Justin Welch (Elastica/Lush), Hila was recorded following extensive touring with The Jesus & Mary Chain and Swervedriver. The result is the most confident, searching music Rose has produced; muscular in its production yet emotionally vulnerable in its diffracted neon glow. A record informed by loss and the way grief mutates our senses, it's fitting that Rose channels the nuanced darkness of later Coil, at times the pounding EBM-production of Skinny Puppy and the near-spiritual alien-ness of Cocteau Twins. On Hila, the doors of perception are constantly melting, revealing the porous nature of the seen and unseen. The result is a synesthesia that flips the senses.

If Love As Projection was an outward-looking record looking to embrace the world, Hila brings the dark cosmos into inner space. Rose's love for 80s production and soaring melodies remain, they're cornerstones to her craft after all, but there's something more assured and gothic underneath the massive waves of sound. Opener Olo shimmers into a pulsating, cinematic brooder, Rose's vocal transcending and swan diving between registers in the chorus breakdowns. First single Cant Be Wrong serves as a transition from the optimistic pop of Rose's previous album, introducing a thumping 80s funk rhythm track under the soaring vocal performance. The ebullient Shadow Twin is that song's sibling, recalling major label-era Strawberry Switchblade melancholy mixed with Robin Guthrie's twinkling guitar work.

Hila blossoms darkly from here on in, blowing out into a glacial wide-screen sonic dynamic. On Rainman and the title track the listener is transported to a rain-soaked, nocturnal cityscape ridden with desire, moonlight cutting through blinds, intoxicating chasms without bounds. Rose's use of saxophone and digital synthesis recalls the nightmusic of Hats-era Blue Nile or the more ambient end of Emeralds' catalog. Indeed, in the towering synthetic cello sounds that climb into the mind on Hila, there's a distinct flavour of the instrumentals on Bowie's Low. This is musick to play in the dark, to light the way a little, just enough to trick the senses.
Leading into the strobe-filled haze, single Manifest pounds forward with a massive Industrial 4/4 beat and post-punk/goth musicality, an exercise in unlit ecstasy. For Best Of Times, the liberal saxophone passages feel like a suppressed, 80s Michael Mann soundtrack with Frankie Rose's effortless, melodic vocal performance probing, searching for connection. Navigating through the dry, iced landscape into a rising sun, closer Velvet Refrain flips the melancholy of the preceding passages. With a massive sound dripping with harmony, the clanging guitar and vocal duet feels they're sound-tracking an unexpected happy ending after bouts of darkness."

My fourth album begins and ends in nature, a space that has continually shaped and inspired my artistic work. I spend much of my time in forests and landscapes, listening, observing, and absorbing the subtle rhythms and structures of the natural environment. These impressions do more than accompany my music; they become an integral part of it, influencing its atmosphere, form, and sonic character. As a result, this has become my most emotional and profound album to date. The journey begins with captured moments from a Mediterranean island. Fragments of distant church bells, the ticking of a clock, and the hum of insects in the sun are gently joined by my piano... In this way, the opening piece, “Time,” serves as an introduction to the central idea behind Ellipsis. The term derives from the Ancient Greek word λλειψις (élleipsis) and refers to the deliberate omission of ἔ words or parts of a sentence.

What remains unsaid can carry just as much meaning as what is spoken. This idea runs like a thread throughout the entire album. A reduction to the essential, yet enriched with the necessary details that continually create space for imagination, personal interpretation, and those emotions that are not prescribed but emerge through the act of listening. Ellipsis exists within this tension between presence and absence, between acoustic and electronic sounds, between nature and the studio, between memory and perception. It is a place where meaning arises not only from what is audible, but also from what remains unspoken.

Basel-based producer Tim Shatnyy made a welcome return to his home label, Resonance, with a massive and satisfyingly complex body of work.

The media ecosystem of Beyond Dualism combines a game, an Instagram bot, generative radio, and a full-length album at the forefront of the high-concept universe. The rhizomatic blend of web development, sound engineering, and conceptual framework does not diminish the joyous energy of Tim Shatnyy’s sonic adventures. Beyond Dualism’s digi-charms coalesce into a dynamic tension of minimalist electronic music, funky glitch, club-ready heaviness, and a boundless, idiosyncratic approach of disorientating arrangements.

Beyond Dualism is the result of Shatnyy’s deep, ongoing process of inner listening, constant change, and spiritual inquiry. It is a perfectly closed cycle of artistic creation, featuring hyperrealistic sound design and visionary manipulation on meta-levels of composition. Beyond Dualism offers the listener a continuous experience, revealing a nearly tactile and visual experience of a sound. Going beyond dualism is a journey. The way the artist has transformed his perception going through this path is reflected in the album's development and its structures.

Music From Memory presents ‘Miraggi’, the debut release by Argento, a new project conceived by composer and producer David August. Written between Berlin and the Tuscan coast, the record unfolds as an imagined soundtrack to the Mediterranean, shaped by memory, longing and a profound connection to landscape.

The earliest sketches emerged during extended periods spent along Italy’s Tyrrhenian coast, where the shifting light, vegetation and ever-changing presence of the sea became lasting creative impulses. At the same time, an immersion in Italian library music of the 1970s and ‘80s quietly informed the project’s tonal language, while traces of jazz fusion and Balearic ambience surfaced not as direct references but as distant echoes.

Built around a dialogue between synthesizers, electronics, acoustic percussion and environmental recordings, ‘Miraggi’ balances rhythmic movement with spacious, cinematic composition. During the recording process, August was joined by drummer and percussionist Lorenzo Setti, whose performances and co-writing became an integral part of the album’s evolving rhythmic language. Across extended improvisations and recording sessions, August and Setti gradually shaped a musical language that feels both deeply personal and quietly transportive, allowing atmosphere and place to become as important as melody or rhythm.

The title ‘Miraggi’ (‘Mirages’) emerged organically, evoking a longing for something that remains just out of reach — something that cannot fully be grasped or lived. It suggests a suspended state between perception and imagination, akin to a hallucination or a dream. In this sense, ‘Miraggi’ reflects the project’s inner narrative: an imagined soundtrack shaped by desire, memory and the spiritual abundance of the Mediterranean Sea.

‘Miraggi’ will be released on vinyl and digitally via Music From Memory on September 10th 2026.

There is a pivotal scene in “August in the Water” (dir. Sōgo Ishii, 1995) where the surface of a pool turns into a stone wall. The water that gave the protagonist's life its meaning becomes a threat. As you fall through this stone wall, you appear in a set of underwater coral-reef corridors, and one of the most beautiful musical themes begins to play: Aquatic Ambience, composed by David Wise for Donkey Kong Country (1994). It's a theme that represents the weightless vibe of your new deep-sea life, where you go about your mundane errands, collecting bananas while driving on a swordfish, or, as HerzMayhem put it: "Poor monkey... always swimming, never going anywhere..."

Synthetic Water Music is the second of three compilations, following Synthetic Bird Music and timed to mappa's 10th anniversary. As with the birds, it gathers friends of the label, artists who have released with mappa or played our shows. Most of the music is new, made to measure for this compilation, much of it from Central and Eastern European hands. Birds and water mix well, so please feel invited to play them together, creating your own environments.

Where the birds were in one flock, water is dispersed across four chapters. You live your life as a droppity drop: vapour in the heavens, condensing in clouds, falling into a swamp, trickling into the deepest sea.

Tlālōcān (Cassette 1, Side A)
A place of eternal spring, of aquatic energy that nourishes everything and allows all things to bloom. Bubbly and splishy-sploshy, it is full of dripping sounds and moist caverns (“Emerald Pool” by Pauline Anna Strom), a landscape filled with living fountains (“Oh, to be a Fountain” by Eva Sajanová) and winding streams that flow through the area, forming part of its organic architecture. It is also a paradise reserved for those whose deaths were water-related, where the aquatic and terrestrial beings live in symbiosis and perspectives shift rapidly, from observing a single droplet (Shakali, Lau Nau) to dew (Feronia Wennborg & Lucy Duncombe) and on to flowing currents (Visible Cloaks) that gradually transform into river music (Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton).

Nephelora (Cassette 1, Side B)
A celestial anti-gravity sound world made of evaporation, steam and the formation of clouds, as if looking at “The Sky At The Bottom of the Well” (by Natalia Beylis) or at “The Cloud That Never Rains” (by Henrique Vaz).

If a cloud never rains,
it is not a cloud at all, but a veil that parches the earth with its gaze.
It generates only its own shadow —
a looming mass of suspended longing,
a sky that hoards but never yields,
a reservoir that swallows every river and returns nothing but echoes.

The water in this world is often invisible but sometimes all the more present, as Bint Mbareh describes it: “Recently been obsessed with invisible waters because I come from a place where you have to imagine the water is there even though you cannot see a river, a sea, usually no rain, so water is in the air, the voice and the imaginal realm, drought is imagined to be negotiable.”

Žaboglach Zha-bo-glahch (Cassette 2, Side A)
A fusion of Scottish lochs and Slovak ponds: a misty, foul-smelling, swampy realm, the kind of place that swallowed Artax from The NeverEnding Story. Stagnant waters full of decay become a blooming habitat for sirens (“thereby losing the weightless delight of being swept along with it” by Adam Badí Donoval) and beings straddling the line between fauna and flora, inventing their own communication systems (“Water-lily phase” by Action Pyramid).

R'lyeh (Cassette 2, Side B)
A brooding sunken city at the bottom of the ocean. It’s a journey to get there. Let this chapter guide you, from the shore down to the depths, to the gates of an unexplored world that is inherently dark, unfathomable, and beyond the limits of human perception: starting with seasickness ("Seasick" by Nikolaienko), passing through a classic Poe-esque maelstrom ("Flurry at the Whirl-pull" by Atte Elias Kantonen), a gateway into the darkness and emptiness of the ocean floor, and finally traversing the city itself (“last waves of 2025” by Jules Reidy).
But what is pulling you to a place like this that only a few explore and even fewer leave? Maybe “the darkness that water can contain, the expanse of things we don't know and that can trigger fear instincts even as we try to rationalise them and think we are in control of the rest of nature” (“supercritical fluids” by Diane Barbé).

Dive in and surface wherever you like. Always swimming, never going anywhere. Just don’t forget to take water breaks.

P.S. Birds, then water, can you guess what comes next? Synthetic Soil Music, an elegy for insects and worms? Synthetic Glaciers, or maybe Pollinators? Which sounds would you miss the most if they disappeared? Or what if the third one never comes at all, and somebody, or something, makes Synthetic mappa Music instead. Don't you worry, with the right training data, it can all be replicated, better than the real thing.

Manonmars’ 3rd album sees him at his most amorphous and psychedelic, at points sharper and laser focused, and at others more blurred and impressionistic than his previous records. Many of the core players remain the same, all of the production is once again handled by O$VMV$M (the duo of Neek and Amos Childs of Jabu) while Paulina Korobkiewicz (also of Young Echo) makes a return handling both the album’s cover artwork and contributing a series of diaristic field recordings and voice notes.

‘The project references movies, cartoons, fictional characters and video games, among other things. The album title is open to interpretation but all of these elements are forms of visual entertainment which have their own unique ability to transcend things like language barriers and cultural divides. The visual element is key because those details bridge the gap on a communicative level.’ - Manonmars

The album blends abstract, blurred braggadocio with more immediate personal details such as on ‘Volcanic Shield’ a posse cut of sorts featuring Bristol improv luminary Dali de Saint Paul and Franco Franco (½ of cyborg rap duo Kinlaw & Franco Franco) - where Mars recalls;

‘Memories of brighter days, happy meal hit the spot
Mum was spinning vinyl playing Super Ape or Pressure Drop
I would spend the weekend with the Turkish mandem on the block
single parent household, mum was studying or on the job
money came and went always was an on and off
made it back from school time to see what’s on the box’


The beat fades away to leave one of Korobkiewicz’s recordings of Mars’ mum talking about her life in London in the 80s, spending her money on reggae records as an ambient chord fades in like an echo of a jungle intro – stretching out as a link between generations of UK music.

The production by and large is brighter and more kinetic than earlier Manonmars records – with O$VMV$M drawing on everything from modern underground rap and drill through to jazz and acid ambient passages.

London is also a central character here, bustling and constantly shifting, either when bleeding in through field recordings, or as an ever-present backdrop in the lyrics;

‘I’m a fusion of Tippa Irie and Topper Harley
Hit the target like the black Atari
I dropped a tab now shit’s A Scanner Darkly
Got the munchies, Imma yam a sarnie
Pour the Wray and Ting like man at Carni
Exit Peckham Rye and turn left, walk past Hannah Barry
Get your (w)raps up like its January’

‘I've always considered London my home, despite spending some time in the South West of England too. My mum had been living in London for 25 years (...) That was a pretty big deal in some ways because it removed us from multicultural society during the period which overlapped with my teenage years. (...) I never got used to how quiet it was in the countryside (...) Bristol was the closest city to where we lived and it was through travelling there and making connections that I became involved in making music and playing gigs.’ - Manonmars

Mars’ practice as a painter (under his given name Jack Martyn Richardson) and photographer also loom heavy over the album, he cites Paul Verhoeven, Abdul Mati Klariwein and H.R Giger as influences – as well as Miles Davis, Drakeo the Ruler and DJ Rashad.

As with much of Richardson’s work the raps at times feel blurred to a point of almost inscrutability, creating a distance between the audience and himself. A process that ties into his visual work and the way he experiences the world as mainly abstract colour without his glasses. He explores this further in an ongoing visual collaboration with Korobkiewicz, ‘Fun and Games’ which serves as a visual archive of one of London's largest and oldest travelling fairgrounds.

‘I was diagnosed with very severe short-sightedness at the age of seven. I remember my early formative years as visually blurred. Some of my photography reflects this experience of partial vision and uncertainty, referencing memory and perception rather than fixed representation.’

Manonmars’ first public outing as a rapper was at a Young Echo radio event, broadcast shambolically from a practice room just off Jamaica street, Bristol in 2011, as much as things have moved on both stylistically and in terms of focus - strong links back to the city remain a key foundation throughout the collaborations and guest appearances.

‘I have no problem with being an outsider looking in. One of the things I enjoy about London is the anonymity (...) it's easy to be a stranger here when so much is happening. I feel like thats more valuable than people may realise.’

This Mirror Weighs a Ton, Interpol’s first album in four years and debut for Partisan Records, finds the band turning inward while continuing to move forward. Across the record, reflection, distortion and perception become a lens through which familiar shapes are refracted into something slightly alien, as if seen through a different kind of light.

Produced with Grammy- and Oscar-winning Andrew Wyatt (ROSALÍA, Charli xcx) and mixed by Dave Fridmann, the album introduces vibrant new textures into Interpol’s world. Synthesizers, strings, acoustic guitars and percussion are integrated into the fabric of the songs, expanding the palette while revealing colors already latent within it. Nothing feels imposed. Instead, the additions deepen the band’s language of restraint, atmosphere and tension. At its center remains the creative relationship between Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler and Sam Fogarino, a partnership now approaching three decades and defined by intuitive alignment and momentum that continues to generate new possibilities. The result is an album that feels expansive, uncanny and alive with forward motion, not a reinvention but an evolution that allows Interpol to continue transforming without losing their identity.

“This Mirror Weighs A Ton” / “See Out Loud” is a study in duality, with Interpol moving fluidly between familiarity and departure. The title track unfolds from a skeletal progression into something vast and textural, built from warped bass, a wordless female voice and a sense of motion that feels tidal, bending the band’s familiar language into somewhere more expansive and unfamiliar. By contrast, “See Out Loud” carries the DNA of Interpol’s earliest work, sharp, propulsive and direct, while complicating it through layered vocals, shifting perspectives and a rare lead vocal turn from Kessler. Both tracks reflect the interplay between structure and spontaneity that defines This Mirror Weighs a Ton, expanding Interpol’s world through fresh textures while keeping the instinctive chemistry between Banks, Kessler and Fogarino at the center.

The double single is accompanied by two visualizers directed by Nick Steinhardt.

This Mirror Weighs a Ton, Interpol’s first album in four years and debut for Partisan Records, finds the band turning inward while continuing to move forward. Across the record, reflection, distortion and perception become a lens through which familiar shapes are refracted into something slightly alien, as if seen through a different kind of light.

Produced with Grammy- and Oscar-winning Andrew Wyatt (ROSALÍA, Charli xcx) and mixed by Dave Fridmann, the album introduces vibrant new textures into Interpol’s world. Synthesizers, strings, acoustic guitars and percussion are integrated into the fabric of the songs, expanding the palette while revealing colors already latent within it. Nothing feels imposed. Instead, the additions deepen the band’s language of restraint, atmosphere and tension. At its center remains the creative relationship between Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler and Sam Fogarino, a partnership now approaching three decades and defined by intuitive alignment and momentum that continues to generate new possibilities. The result is an album that feels expansive, uncanny and alive with forward motion, not a reinvention but an evolution that allows Interpol to continue transforming without losing their identity.

“This Mirror Weighs A Ton” / “See Out Loud” is a study in duality, with Interpol moving fluidly between familiarity and departure. The title track unfolds from a skeletal progression into something vast and textural, built from warped bass, a wordless female voice and a sense of motion that feels tidal, bending the band’s familiar language into somewhere more expansive and unfamiliar. By contrast, “See Out Loud” carries the DNA of Interpol’s earliest work, sharp, propulsive and direct, while complicating it through layered vocals, shifting perspectives and a rare lead vocal turn from Kessler. Both tracks reflect the interplay between structure and spontaneity that defines This Mirror Weighs a Ton, expanding Interpol’s world through fresh textures while keeping the instinctive chemistry between Banks, Kessler and Fogarino at the center.

The double single is accompanied by two visualizers directed by Nick Steinhardt.

Michaela Turcerová’s compositions unfold in slow motion. The saxophonist and composer’s glacial music zeroes in on the granularities of each note as it rings, soaking in every subtle shift in texture and pitch.

Šumum exemplifies this patient approach to writing music, branching out from themes of loss and togetherness into an intricate tapestry of introspective sound. These four pieces invite deep collaboration between performers, who together shape the music through the shared process of listening and interpreting Turcerová’s relatively open scores. And while these works often grow from long, stretched-out tones, they also foreground forward direction: no note stays in one place, no melody is without action. Instead, Šumum chronicles how the tiniest shifts can lead to major transformation.

Šumum builds from Turcerová’s longheld interests in place and minimalism. Many of the composer’s works explore perception: how a room can shape the music we hear, and how repetition alters a melody. Like the music of Éliane Radigue, Šumum embraces the rainbow of colors that appear when close listening with the wave-like flow of looped melodic and rhythmic patterns. All the album’s pieces observe the subtle changes that happen as music grows.

Group communication yields the constant evolution that defines Šumum. The album feels like a conversation, with each instrumentalist swapping phrases or trading places when the moment feels right. “Straty” builds from a series of strongly accented drones that appear as quickly as they fade away; underneath them is a perpetual rhythm that drives the color of each long held note, from melancholy into radiance and back again. With “Vlny,” pitch eventually disappears, leaving a delicate rhythm, and with “Masy,” a matrix of brassy tones link together and eventually burst. No matter where the music goes, one thing remains true: Šumum invites close listening, and in the process, reveals the beauty of continual motion.

Brownswood Editions unearths another treasure from the catalogue, revisiting the Havana Cultura project. Initiated by DJ, broadcaster and curator Gilles Peterson in the late 2000s, Havana Cultura connected contemporary Cuban musicians with global audiences at a time when international perceptions of Cuban music were still largely rooted in the Buena Vista Social Club era.

Instead, the project spotlighted a new generation of Havana-based artists whose sound drew from contemporary diasporic influences - neo-soul, hip-hop and reggaeton - seen through a distinctly Afro-Cuban lens.

One of the project’s most explosive moments came with this Cuban reimagining of Fela Kuti’s classic Roforofo Fight, a track that quickly became a DJ favourite thanks to its live energy and deep rhythmic drive. The band features both Mayra Caridad Valdés (daughter of Chucho) - one of Cuba’s leading contemporary jazz and soul singers and internationally acclaimed pianist Roberto Fonseca.

This new 12" edition pairs the original version with a highly sought-after remix from house music legend Louie Vega, who brings his unmistakable New York Latin house touch, extending the groove for contemporary dancefloors while respecting the Afro-Cuban roots of the recording. The original remix pressing has since become highly sought after on discogs, making this long-awaited return to vinyl essential for DJs and collectors alike.

A meeting point of Afrobeat heritage, Cuban musicianship and club culture, the release reflects Brownswood’s long-standing mission to join the dots between scenes, sounds and generations.

Music From Memory presents 'Mood Programs – Extended Play', a two-track release by LA MARR, a new project conceived by Ron Trent. Representing the first in an ongoing series of releases on Music From Memory, ‘Mood Programs - Extended Play’ opens a new chapter within Trent’s deep and continually evolving body of work, rooted in mood-driven composition, spatial depth and the emotional resonance of sound within physical space.

Influenced by ambient and environmental music, New Age, dub traditions, New Wave, Krautrock and HiFi sound system culture, LA MARR reflects many of the formative ideas that informed Trent’s evolving approach to sound and sonic architecture from the early 1980s onward. Rather than revisiting these influences nostalgically, the project recontextualises them through a contemporary production language, balancing analog warmth with precision and spatial depth.

Developed through years of sonic experimentation and research into the physical and psychological qualities of sound, LA MARR extends Ron Trent’s long-standing interest in the relationship between rhythm, acoustics and human connection. Built through a combination of analog processes and contemporary computer-assisted production, the project explores warmth, resonance, depth and sonic clarity through carefully sculpted environments of tone and texture.

Gently unfolding within a spacious, ambient-leaning framework, 'Mood Programs – Extended Play' moves beyond passive background listening toward something more intentional and immersive. Across both tracks, ‘Good Magic’ and ‘Clear’, layers of hypnotic synthesizer arpeggios and gently floating pads gradually unfold alongside organic percussion and subtle low-end movement, creating compositions that feel simultaneously meditative, physical and emotionally responsive. Sound is treated not simply as musical information, but as an environmental force capable of shaping perception, mood and awareness within a room.

'Mood Programs – Extended Play' will be released digitally and on vinyl through Music From Memory on July 15th. Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.

On Board Music returns with its next remixes package. Following the "Point C Remixes" in 2024, the Rotterdam based label now revisits four tracks taken from its charity compilations "The Meaning of Time" and "The Meaning of Time II" - all reimagined by fellow On Board artists. Born during the global health crisis of 2020, "The Meaning of Time" series explored the shifts, fractures, and altered perceptions of time experienced during that period. This new remix edition not only reshapes selected pieces through the vision of close label affiliates and takes them closer to the dancefloor, but also sees all tracks freshly remastered by Neel. The four tracks were given a new life in two different ways - by remastering and reinterpretation. Luigi Tozzi treats Polygonia's aquatic ambient piece "Magnetic Force" and pushes the track deeper into dark and hypnotic late night territories. Vera Logdanidi's emotionally charged arpeggiated electronic work "Water bubble Floating In Space" receives a peak-time reinterpretation by Non Series head Psyk. Swedish artist Dorisburg reworks Human Space Machine's "Danz7" into a dreamier and more percussive journey. Closing the release in true deep On Board fashion is label head Laura BCR, who reinterprets Bas Dobbelaer's "T2310" in an earthy and textured manner, while keeping its ambient techno & dubby spirit vividly alive. Photography by Marius Renard.

After appearing on Kulture Galerie Volume 4 alongise Uncanny Valley and fellow North Marcedonian Herzel, L.O.V.D joins the Digital Artefacts series with 'Dive'.

L.O.V.D is a doctor by day, synth geek by night, set between North Macedonia and Berlin. The title track of this new EP on Kulture Galerie was being picked for a mixed comp by Voltage Lab and his sound is started to being recognised internationally with appearances at many music festivals with his live set as well as international hotspots like Kiosk Radio.

This brand new 4 tracker is a personal journey that Ljuben describes like this:

'Dive is a collection of songs that embody my perception of the complex emotions experienced between two people in love. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes sad, always heavily emotionally charged, never perfect.'

Nach der Veröffentlichung von „idea 1“, kündigt Kelela ihr neues, drittes Album an, das am 10. Juli bei Warp Records erscheint – und veröffentlicht die zweite Single „linknb“, produziert von Oscar Scheller.

Der Track entstand in einer Phase der Schreibblockade und begann als Mantra, das Kelela schrieb, um sich wieder an die Arbeit zu bringen. Angeführt von einem labyrinthischen Gitarrenriff über treibenden Metal-Drums ist „linknb“ ein Song über Selbstvertrauen, das man sich durch Schwierigkeiten erarbeitet hat, darüber, sich nicht klein machen zu lassen. „Es ist nicht schwer, mutig zu sein / Es ist leichter, zu viel preiszugeben / Ich weiß nur, dass ich den Weg geebnet habe, unterbezahlt.“

Das von Mischa Notcutt inszenierte Video versetzt Kelela in die Mitte einer urbanen Traumlandschaft. Als enger Freund und Kelelas ehemaliger Kreativdirektor war Notcutt die naheliegende Wahl. Das Video lässt Realismus und Abstraktion ineinanderfließen und verwandelt eine einsame Reise in eine Meditation über Selbstfindung und Erneuerung.

Mit „new avatar“ rückt alles, worauf Kelela hingearbeitet hat, in den Fokus. Sie begann ihre ersten Songs in der Indie-Szene von Washington, D.C. zu schreiben, bevor die Clubmusik und die elektronische Produktion, die ihre frühe Karriere prägten, die Oberhand gewannen. Mit „new avatar“ schließt sie den Kreis: R&B, unterlegt mit verzerrten Gitarrenklängen, trifft auf neue Schnittstellen in der Tanzmusik und gipfelt in einem Sound, der aus all den musikalischen Einflüssen schöpft, die sie je geprägt haben. Das Album enthält zudem Kollaborationen mit PinkPantheress, A. K. Paul und Fousheé.

„Dieses Album findet Trost in der Konfrontation“, sagt Kelela. „Ich möchte nicht, dass die Musik von dem ablenkt, was wirklich in der Welt vor sich geht; ich möchte, dass sie in dieser verrückten Zeit Sinn ergibt und den Menschen gleichzeitig hilft, mit der Schönheit und Freude in Kontakt zu kommen, die sie ebenfalls erleben.“

Das Album setzt sich mit einer Welt auseinander, die aus allen Nähten auseinanderfällt, und mit der Klarheit, die das Überleben erfordert.

„Die Leute sollten auch wissen, dass meine Freunde und ich ständig lachen und dass Humor kein Abwehrmechanismus ist; er ist Ausdruck dafür, wie scharfsinnig wir die Dinge einschätzen und wie klar wir die Welt sehen.“

Im Kern schildert „new avatar“ eine vielschichtige Erfahrung, und obwohl die Außenwelt präsent ist, schwächt sie Kelelas Entschlossenheit zu keinem Zeitpunkt.

About Kelela: Throughout her globally revered, boundary-pushing career, Kelela has established a lane of her own in R&B and electronic music. On her long-awaited third album, new avatar, the singer/songwriter (through the versatility of the guitar) challenges perceptions of these genres, while weaving together fragments of lived experiences to shape a world of connection and resilience during times of unrest.

The songs journey through Black femme rage, joy as resistance, Gotham City-esque dystopia, misogynoir, romantic tension, and more. It’s anchored by production that demands a broader rethink about alternative, rock and indie music.

Kelela’s defiant nature has propelled her so far already — from her hometown of Washington, D.C to world stages. In 2013, she released her debut mixtape, Cut 4 Me. She continued solidifying her revolutionary R&B sound with 2015’s Hallucinogen EP, with The New York Times naming its single, “Rewind,” one of the “25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going”. By 2017, she released her electric debut album Take Me Apart (which was followed by 2018’s TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES), building upon her intimate storytelling.

After a nearly five-year hiatus, she returned in 2023 with her groundbreaking second album, Raven, and its critically-acclaimed counterpart, RAVE:N, The Remixes in 2024. Raven has been hailed as one of the ‘Best Albums of 2023’ by Pitchfork, Billboard, Vulture, Variety, and more, while the remixes solidified her as a leader in the dance music space.

In 2025, Kelela showcased yet another innovative side of her artistry with her live album In The Blue Light, which hit #5 on the Contemporary Jazz chart and #20 on the Jazz Albums chart. Now, with new avatar, Kelela displays the masterful intention she puts into forming new sonic cityscapes. But don’t confuse it with escapism: “I don't want the music to be a distraction from what's really going on in the world; I want it to help you get into it.”

From the edges of a hallucinatory torpor, Rue des Garderies continue their explorations in psychedelia - Femacosmé presents here a new piece recorded live at the Pe:rsona festival, at Domaine des Éveils in the summer of 2025.



An adventure guided by blur, the intangible, the impermanent, where layers, voices, sounds, and organic and synthetic echoes resonate, emerge, then fade away, as if to deceive reality, or at least our perception of it.



More than two semi-improvised hours in which Rue des Garderies (Sweetzak, Désiré Bonaventure & Vasco Cesaretti) summon us to an astral yet motionless journey, somewhere between ambient, IDM, and post-pop.

The latest contribution to Organic Signs’ Monolith vinyl series, Sefarae, unveils the spellbinding collaborative EP debut of Paris-based rising figures Bambi & Forest.
Elephants drifting through subby realms, birds singing across open skies, distant whispers echoing through warm air…

Sefarae unfolds as an ethereal space where the realm of living creatures merges with our own. On the edge of waking life, vast terrains of golden sand stretch endlessly, hidden oases vanish at dawn. Sefarae invites listeners into thisoneiric territory, a space where wild forces intertwine.

Through a shifting lens of perception, the EP evolves across multiple versions of a single track, each mix revealing a unique facet of the same core essence. Blending percussive textures, organic atmospheres, and psychedelic synths, the release moves seamlessly between hypnotic, playful, and introspective phases.

From the gentle emergence of the Oasis Opening Mix to the mischievous energy of the Cheeky Dub Mix, and finally the soft descent of the Dawn Mix, Sefaraetraces a continuous arc – guiding listeners on an esoteric, immersive journey.

On his new album, Micha Acher rearranged compositions for bands such as Tied & Tickled Trio and Ms. John Soda from previous years.

Why are we interested in ghosts? What fascinates us about the eerie? According to cultural theorist Mark Fisher, the allure that the eerie possesses is not captured by the idea that we „enjoy what scares us“. It has, rather, to do with a fascination for the outside. For that which lies beyond standard perception, cognition or experience, as he writes in his book „The Weird and the Eerie“.

In fact, also none of the 15 pieces from Henry and the Ghost is really scary. On the contrary, they all feel strangely familiar. Like revenants or doppelgängers, which in fact they are. They have all been released before. But in a different form. In different line-ups. With different band projects such as Tied & Tickled Trio, The Notwist or the Alien Ensemble.

With the „Songbook“, Micha Acher's aim was, as he says, to find out how the familiar pieces sound in a chamber music instrumentation. Therefore he met with Theresa Loibl (bass clarinet, piano), Timm Kornelius (bassoon), Markus Rom (guitar, banjo, electronics) and Simon Popp (drums, percussion) in his living room for a musical séance in the summer of 2022. The séance lasted two days. Afterwards, Markus Rom (Oh No Noh), added some haunting electronical ideas.

The mood of most of the pieces is melancholic. There are surprising twists and siren-like melodies. Just as ghost stories should be. However, most of the songs sound very light-footed. With their feet in pop, folk, jazz and classical music. Pieces such as „Johanna“ with its wheezing harmonium and spooky piano, or the dreamy „Modest Farewell“ on the other hand have a cinematic flair. Immediately faces and scenes arise in the mind. But at the beginning, there is „Hamlet“. It starts with ghostly electronics and merges into a calm, almost classical guitar piece. Could it be that the ghost of Hamlet's father is hiding between the strings?

„34E“ begins with a banjo. Then the deep humming of Micha Achers sousaphone and the other brass instruments kick in. In the slow, solemn „Aelita“, the sousaphone starts a dialogue with a children's piano. With the banjo and the other wind instruments acting as mediators. The title of „All Tomorrow's Past“ brings Velvet Undergrounds „All Tomorrow's Parties“ to mind. Another ghost from the past. What connects the two pieces is free-floating percussion, which accompanies the sumptuous melodies.

„Arc“ takes us on an exhilarating voyage at sea, with the sousaphone providing powerful propulsion. Towards the end, things get quite turbulent. With the clarinet stirring up the water, before the sea calms down again. „Henry and the Ghost“ is characterised by a ghostly mood change between major and minor. In „Radio Four“ the banjo with its stoic chords keeps the lively brass section in check. „Solid Ground“ is imbued with melancholy. „Space Minor“ takes us into outer space, with the power of sousaphone and percussion.

„Tomorrows“ is filled with cautious optimism. And the concluding „Nordlead“ turns out to be a revenant of the instrumental „N.L.“ from The Notwist's legendary album „Shrink“ from 1998. In the new version, the piece sounds like a distant echo. One that also brings to mind how Micha Acher's music has evolved. Which new worlds he explored and opened up since the nineties. And yet Acher's signature is recognisable in every single note of this fascinating „Songbook“.

New from Ulla’s 28912 label comes a gorgeous bouquet of lowercase wonders from Justin Cantrell aka J and the Woolen Stars, part of Picnic, and the brains behind the excellent Daisart and se Dessaisir Publishing labels.

»Puff« is a glistening pool of lush refractions and music-box lullabies, featuring an array of acoustic instruments and fragile foley sounds that are gently peeled away until all we’re left with are the faded outlines of half-remembered songs.

A sound that roots itself in the prophetic machinations of artists like Fennesz and the languid Japanese minimalism of Fourcolour or Moskitoo, »Puff« strikes a delicate balance, sounding as bewitchingly informal as a Tenniscoats set, but also consistently muddling the perception of high and low-brow sound. Cantrell’s skill lies in a sort of sonic conjuration, bamboozling the brains of those of us who grew up listening to stepped-on audio via ramshackle RealMedia streams by alchemising the content, turning found sound into gold. Just tell us you don’t get chills from hearing the bitrate-impaired acoustic guitar on »Dirty like an angel«, set against a backdrop of windy, harmonic detritus. It’s both meticulously contrived and gloriously off-the-cuff, like one of Vincent Gallo’s classic »When«-era demos reduced down to 96kbps.

Similarly, »She knows just what to say« provokes faint memories of folk music, with impromptu fiddle parts gently steamrolled to create a sound that’s nothing short of exquisite, like pressed flowers rediscovered in an old, discarded book. Even the more palpably electronic elements are hand sculpted in a way that belies the era we’re living in - it’s music for a digital age that sounds oddly unplugged, flawed and human. An unmistakably lovely antidote to the opiating nostalgia of our time.

Phonica welcomes Mattias El Mansouri, a Swedish-born DJ and producer of Moroccan/Chilean descent who has been behind some of our favourite releases over the past few years on labels such as Aniara and Nous'klaer.

On the 'Sense Data' 12", El Mansouri expands on his atmospheric House and Techno explorations with three deep yet dancefloor primed pieces that hold personal resonance for him.

El Mansouri, who holds a degree in Theoretical Philosophy, explains:

"'Sense Data' are the immediate elements of perception; what is directly given to the senses before any judgment or interpretation. In vision, these appear as colored, shaped patches; in other senses, as sounds, tastes, smells, or tactile qualities. For example, seeing a brown table with a white coaster involves sense data of a brown patch and a white roundish patch, from which one infers the presence of a table and coaster."

On the record's flip, we have the beautiful "Cielo Vacío' and 'Ouzo Hallon' dub version of 'Sense Data'. El Mansouri continues:

"Cielo Vacío translates to “empty sky” in Spanish. The track serves as a eulogy for my brother, who passed away in December 2023. I chose this title because it resonates with the sonic and emotional atmosphere of the piece. Its ambiguity is intentional, carrying both the weight of grief that lingers after losing someone you love, and a strange, fragile peace you extend toward the departed. It reflects the hope that, wherever they are, whether or not one believes in an afterlife, they have found rest.

Ouzo Hallon translates to Ouzo (the Greek liquor)+Hallon (Raspberry). It’s a long drink that my (Greek) ex came up with last summer, mixing ouzo, raspberry syrup/raspberry juice and ice. It became a thing in our little friend group, consisting of mostly Greeks, and every time we all hang out we would all just drink ouzo hallon until we couldn’t stand straight. I always wanted to name a track Ouzo Hallon, just for the fun of it, and what better way to get the chance than now!"

Convergence is an ambient album formed through a series of morning rituals during rehabilitation following a severe medical event and an extended hospital stay. After weeks immersed in the constant alarms, beeps, and environmental signals of medical equipment, the act of listening itself became recalibrated. The music was performed and assembled using glass marimba, flute, and analog synthesizers, with each instrument treated as a source of resonance and gradually dissected through spectral analysis—allowing melody to emerge from fragments through repetition, attention, and daily practice, where synthesis functions not as traditional composition but as an exchange of signals.


Working slowly and intuitively, Stardust Multiplier approaches sound as a communicative medium between humans, the natural environment, and non-ordinary states of perception. Motifs evolve through repetition and subtle variation, informed by ceremonial music, mythic structures, and speculative communication frameworks associated with non-human intelligence—not as narrative devices, but as metaphors for attuned listening and pattern recognition.

Rather than moving toward resolution, Convergence documents moments of alignment—instances where intention, system, and environment briefly synchronize. The result is a restrained, deeply focused record, less concerned with atmosphere than attention, where synthesis functions as both a grounding practice and a method of inquiry.

Swedish composer and multi-instrumentalist Gustaf Ljunggren invites listeners into the quiet, reflective world of Along the Low Road , an ambitious solo album that balances delicacy with depth. Following the success of Ljunggren s 2022 release Floreana , this new release offers a gentle, dream dream-like musical journey, shaped by two of the Nordic scene s most imaginative and intuitive musicians. Balancing sparse acoustic instrumentation with sprawling affected soundscapes, the album moves with patience and clarity. Ljunggren s compositions provide a foundation for subtle interplay, where every note and gesture is attentive to the music s unfolding. Featured guest Icelandic bassist Skúli Sverrisson s bass provides warmth and grounding, supporting Ljunggren s guitar, ukulele, and multi multi-instrumental textures. The result is a sound that is at once intimate and expansive, inviting reflection and connection. The tracks draw inspiration from nature, landscapes, and personal experience. Lille Skotland " evokes the rocky coast of Bornholm with gentle, melancholic flow, while Stevelen " captures the quiet power of cliffs and open skies. The title track, Along the Low Road," traces a contemplative path, its cyclical melodies and ambient layers offering perspective and calm. Letters Melting " twists a classical chord progression into a reflective polska, while Summer Passing Letting Go " balances warmth and transition. Brief, hymn hymn-like pieces such as Tillfrisknandet " provide moments of repose, and playful minimalism in Nine Again " captures the wonder of childhood at the cusp of youth. The album closes with Here And Not Here," a meditative reflection on perception and presence, leaving the listener in a quiet, suspended space. Ljunggren and Sverrisson have long been celebrated for their generosity, sensitivity, and courage as collaborators. Their work together on Along the Low Road continues this partnership, offering music that listens as much as it plays. Drawing from jazz, minimalism, Nordic folk, and early music, the duo s sound combines melodic clarity with a sense of freedom, revealing subtle emotional depths in each composition. In concert, Ljunggren and Sverrisson reimagine these pieces in the moment, allowing the music to unfold with a sense of shared discovery. Whether recorded or live, the album is a testament to the duo s enduring musical dialogue and the quiet, immersive beauty of their Nordic sensibility.

Primordial Mind forms the mysteries and intensity of inner life into eight mandalic instrumentals where Mas Aya and Khôra, artists who share 15 years of music making, orchestrate an inspired, prismatic palette of percussive and melodic sources. Each composition presented stages a vigorous meshwork of colours and textures, contrasting riveting polyrhythms with towering arrangements for flutes, synths, and processed acoustic instruments. Tendencies which the artists trace in their solo practices are amplified, blended, and refracted sublimely in unison, serving as energetic portals to the collective awareness.

Combining trans-ethnic scaling alongside a heady brew of rhythmic influences and advanced electronic processing, the recordings on this album operate with a tactility that vaults between free jazz, dub, raga, ambient, and ritual music. Assimilated powers of primal drum patterning and psychoactive, ceremonial melodies, invoke fourth world adjacencies with the work of Don Cherry, Jon Hassell, Popol Vuh et al. There is an alchemical, Buddhist/Taoist/Hindu inflection that guides the record’s narrative, formed through dialogue between the artists over lifelong shared interest in spiritual modalities generally and the tantric approaches of the global east in particular. The album title is derived from an unexcelled esoteric work known as the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time)Tantra and its associated commentary the Ornament of Stainless Light which detail forms of inner and outer transubstantiation within its complex cosmology and metaphysiology.

Mas Aya is the moniker of Brandon Miguel Valdivia, acclaimed Nicaraguan-Canadian composer, producer, and musician whose electronic and jazz inspired works creatively interlace Colombian, Cuban, and a wide array of traditional music. Khôra is the name of the occult entity that uses multi-instrumentalist, producer, and writer Matthew Ramolo to pronounce itself. Returning to Marionette following 2024's monumental Gestures of Perception, Primordial Mind reinforces the rigorous and magical approach to creation which defines Khôra’s two decades of sonic output. Brandon and Matthew met back in 2011 and the pair toured around eastern Europe with Toronto band Picastro in 2013, also performing as a duo with Brandon contributing drums to Khôra's opening sets. After a short spate composing and playing in the ensemble Bespoken together, they continued to discover shared inspiration in psych/art rock, jazz, experimental and electronic music, providing a fertile soil for friendship and collaboration resulting in their collaged, lo-fi album Tangled Roots in 2017. Mythic and talismanic, the duo's Marionette debut weaves a luminous tapestry of organic pulses, offering itself as a support for resonant meditation and a motor for lucid action and intuition.

Brandon Miguel Valdivia: Percussion, Flutes, Log Drum, Korg Lambda, Angklung, Tambor Alegre, Udu
Matthew Ramolo: Modular Synth, Archival Samples, Angklung, Guitar, Duduk, Bass, Percussion, Arrangements and Mix

This EP marks the first release from a collaborative project between Tokyo based DJ/producer Iori Wakasa and Okayama's Keita Sano, born from a quiet resonance between their musical sensibilities.

In Japan, the academic year begins in April. Though born in 1988 and 1989, the two artists belong to the same school-year cohort under this system, yet within Japan's gengo era structure they stand at the symbolic end of one era and the beginning of another. The title 'A Shift of Eras' points to the moment when one era gives way to the next, suggesting not only the passage of time, but the subtle renewal of culture, perception, and values.

'Filtered Jewels' draws from the image of light shimmering like gemstones, or a space scattered with countless jewels, perceived through an imagined filter that gently alters the way the scene reveals itself.
'Heaven's Door' envisions the ascent of a transparent staircase floating above a sea of clouds, leading toward a quietly resting emerald-green door.
'Shocking Yellow', originally created in response to a specific request, incorporates carefully placed vocal samples while grounding the track in warm, rounded low frequencies and organic textures, shaped with DJ use in mind.
And finally, 'Time To Change' was reconstructed repeatedly with the hope of offering both solace and a quiet sense of encouragement, ultimately becoming a piece that reflects the underlying theme of the EP.