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Dictaphone are back with their 6th full length called "Unstable". In the 25th year of the project Brussels born composer and mastermind Oliver Doerell is surrounded again by a lot of musicians & friends. Roger Döring is there, his clarinet and saxophone play has always been a trademark sound of the band - also Alexander Stolze's ghostly violins. The dark atmosphere and experimental sound of the new album is a reference to the 80s belgian art music scene, which Doerell had the luck to experience in his formative years. Minimal jazz meets musique concrete meets a postpunk mind. On this new album “Unstable“ more voices and vocals than usual can be heard - especially Helga Raimondi (who already sang on the last album “Goats and Distortions 5") . As a collage artist she is also responsible for the visual side of Dictaphone - she designed the cover artwork and the visuals for the live shows.

The Brussels-Berlin-Teheran connection: Other guests on "Unstable" are the voices of Kaveh Ghaemi and Ashkan Afsharian, who Doerell met during a modern ballet production by Modjgan Hashemian (2008). The trumpet of Shahab Anousha can be heard in the track “La fin“ - Oliver Doerell and Shahab Anousha also share the spoken words Project “Noufān”. For nearly 20 years Oliver Doerell is linked to the Iranian Diaspora in Berlin and the Dictaphone track “Rattle” from the classic album “ Poems from a rooftop “ (2012) has been a hit in Teherans underground scene since the beginning. Furthermore the title track “Unstable“ is a homage to Ian Curtis of Joy Division. The words of this piece are based on the setlist of Joy Divisions last show.

Dictaphone played more than two hundred shows all over the world (including festivals Mutek, Transmediale, Unsound , Benicassim and many others). Their music can be heard in countless films, tv series and theatre pieces - (“the responder“ (BBC) , “the love he knows” (Ali Mohammad) , “Don´t move“ (Modjgan Hashemian) , Ring (Felix Ruckert) among others.

Political thriller Je Suis Karl, produced by German director Christian Schwochow, has a strong Czech connection. The soundtrack has been created by Czech musician and composer Tomáš Dvořák, a.k.a. Floex, who joined forces with British composer and pianist Tom Hodge. The soundtrack for Je Suis Karl will be released on September 16, 2021.
"In this project, Tom and I built on music that we wrote together three years ago for the album A Portrait Of John Doe. While this was the first feature film for me, Tom has extensive experience with composing music for movies and series," commented Dvořák.
Co-produced by the Czech company Negativ and filmed in part in the Czech Republic, the movie features characters played by Czech actresses Anna Fialová and Elizaveta Maximová. The picture makes use of the story of a young German girl, Maxi, and her family to draw attention to rising extremism among right-wing nationalists. Je Suis Karl was premiered during this year's Berlinale film festival in the Berlinale Special section.
At the director's initiative, music for Je Suis Karl was composed based on the script before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Christian Schwochow asked for a demo, but when Tom and I set to work in Prague, we came up with a huge amount of inspired stuff within a short time, and the music became the foundation of the soundtrack. Because of the pandemic, the music itself was created on a long-distance basis. It was a game of ping pong of sorts," Dvořák added.
The soundtrack for Je Suis Karl features a unique timbre, far from the traditional symphonic sound. Instead, the sonic design relies on a fusion of dark, discordant, dirty sounds that present the symphony orchestra in a novel fashion.
Floex and Hodge created a database of loops, sounds, soundscapes, and sonic experiments with no specific compositional context. In composing music for individual scenes, they used this musical database, remixed themes and versions of compositions, and worked with vintage equipment, such as the Yamaha MT4X cassette player. Considering the large quantity of music recorded, the album contains 14 compositions from the movie itself, plus bonus tracks that did not make it into the film.
Tomáš Dvořák, a.k.a. Floex, is a Czech clarinetist, composer, producer, and multimedia artist, the recipient of multiple Anděl Music Awards. His discography includes two long-play records, Pocustone and Zorya, soundtracks for the games Samorost 2, Machinarium, Samorost 3, Pilgrims, and Papetura, remix albums, and extended-play records. In 2018, he joined forces with Tom Hodge to release the album A Portrait Of John Doe.
British composer, pianist, and clarinetist Tom Hodge challenges the boundaries of contemporary experimental music. He composes music for film, series, documentaries, advertising, and ballet. His most recent projects include the soundtrack for Je Suis Karl and music for the movie The Mauritanian filmed by director Kevin Macdonald. He has released several solo albums, including Piano Interrupted and Second Moon of Winter, and has pursued a long-term collaborative partnership with musician Max Cooper.

Denmark s forward forward-thinking trio Human Being Human return with a luminous new collaboration featuring acclaimed American saxophonist Chris Cheek. Rooted in lyricism, groove, and connection, Being captures the essence of what it means to create music as a shared act of humanity. Formed by bassist Torben Bjornskov, pianist Esben Tjalve, and drummer Frederik Bülow, Human Being Human have quickly earned a reputation as one of Europe s most distinctive piano trios. Their blend of Nordic lyricism and modern rhythmic vitality has drawn international acclaim for its compositional voice and cohesive ensemble sound. On Being , the trio expand their world through the unmistakable voice of Chris Cheek - a player known for his warm tone and intuitive lyricism, whose credits include work with Paul Motian, Brad Mehldau, and Charlie Haden. A long long-time admirer of Cheek s work and humility, Bjornskov reached out and invited him to Denmark to collaborate with the trio. In the studio, the chemistry was undeniable, as most of the album s tracks were captured in just one or two takes, preserving a sense of immediacy and spontaneity. Reflecting on what it means to be human, our capacity to make decisions and shape the world around us, as well as the damage our species has done to our planet, the quartet channels a spirit of contemplation and rediscovery through elegant, organic compositions. Tracks like Human Rights showcase the group s deft interplay and melodic clarity, while the tender ballad Being highlights Cheek s burnished tone and Tjalve s spacious harmonic sense. On Filia , a duo between bass and saxophone, the music unfolds in weightless dialogue and pure musical empathy. True to the group s name, Being reflects on what it means to live, connect, and create as humans in a complex world. The essence of music is working together, being open, being positive, and wanting to experience new things, things," says Bjornskov. That s essentially what jazz is - it s influenced by any and every culture in the world, every kind of music and race, and every person is part of it.

A chance meeting in Mexico City set Points of Inaccessibility into motion. When Ibero-American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri crossed paths with Dutch media artist Jaco Schilp at MUTEK in 2024, a conversation about how technology shapes perception revealed an unexpected common ground. Schilp invited Irisarri to a spring 2025 residency at Uncloud, the Utrecht-based collective he co-founded, where Irisarri's sound began to take form amid an environment shaped by Schilp’s visual research.

The Uncloud studio was located inside the former Pieter Baan Centre, a forensic psychiatric prison where suspects of violent crimes were once confined. Its long history of silence and containment shaped the atmosphere in which the project developed. Within this setting, Irisarri coaxed long bowed-guitar tones through a network of pedals and looping systems. The raw gestures thickened into a vaporous and architectural field of sound. Schilp processed the material through a custom point-cloud software patch that produced images in continuous flux. The visuals flickered, dissolved and reformed like memories that resist coherence, functioning as a digital Rorschach that reflected the observer’s own perception.

Amid these spectral echoes, the project evolved into an examination of how the past persists within present signals. Memory endures as residue and interference, continually shaping perception even when its source has faded.

Schilp’s visual process required a continuous stream of sound in real time. Irisarri improvised throughout the residency, generating material that allowed the visuals to develop in parallel. Once back in his New York studio, he began shaping the recordings by carving pathways through the improvisations and mapping selected passages into MIDI. This process allowed him to build outward from the bowed-guitar material with minimal overdubs, adding Prophet 5 textures, Moog bass and strings that expanded the harmonic field while keeping the original performances at the center. To refine the structure, Abul Mogard provided editorial input, working with Irisarri’s stems to guide transitions and strengthen the overall pacing. The material, originally created under conditions of immediacy and constraint, evolved into a fully realized work through careful revision, patience and sustained reworking.

The title engages the geographic concept of the Poles of Inaccessibility, locations defined solely by their distance from all surrounding points. Irisarri adapts this idea to the conditions of digital life, where new forms of inaccessibility arise through the informational enclosures that structure perception. What appears to be a fully connected network often produces a deeper kind of separation, one shaped by the filtering logic of the systems that mediate experience. In this sense, the digital sphere mirrors its geographic counterpart. We inhabit spaces saturated with signals, yet the possibility of genuine contact becomes increasingly remote.

At its core, Points of Inaccessibility considers what can be understood as the new rituals of capitalist realism. Irisarri uses the term digital shamanism to describe the forms of simulated connection that organize contemporary life. These systems promise comfort through algorithms, influencers and AI interlocutors, yet they often reproduce the same conditions that generate loneliness in the first place. What appears as connection becomes the echo of connection, a sequence of gestures that imitate solidarity while withholding it. Like the geographic poles, these rituals are defined by distance. They pull us into environments where everything is illuminated, yet meaningful proximity becomes increasingly rare. In this sense, the work approaches a hauntology of the present, a reflection on futures that have stalled and intimacies that have been thinned by the algorithmic infrastructures that surround us.

This thematic tension unfolds across the album’s four movements. Faded Ghosts of Clouds introduces the work with textures that rise and dissipate in slow cycles, creating an atmosphere that resists clear definition. Breaking the Unison occupies a pivotal position in the sequence and focuses on the moment when the individual and the system fall out of alignment. Its shifting patterns trace the scattering of signals that once suggested connection, revealing the instability at the heart of contemporary perception. Signals from a Distant Afterglow forms the center of the album and features vocals by Karen Vogt, whose presence enters the sound field like a fragile transmission shaped by distance and delay. The closing piece, Memory Strands, follows motifs that appear, recede and briefly intersect before returning to quiet. Across these movements, the album outlines a landscape in which emergence and disappearance continually inform one another.

Listening to Points of Inaccessibility is an encounter with a sound field that is constantly in flux. Elements surface briefly, shift position and recede, creating a sense of motion that resists stable interpretation. The music moves between closeness and vastness, carrying traces of memory while withholding a clear point of resolution.

The album’s visual identity completes the project’s conceptual arc. In Mexico City, where Irisarri and Schilp first met, Daniel Castrejón transformed stills from Schilp’s point-cloud visuals into the cover image. The final artwork captures a single suspended frame of the digital material, a moment extracted from a field that is normally in constant motion. Its surface recalls the texture and abstraction found in the work of Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies, where material presence and erasure coexist within the same plane.

What emerges is a work that examines the tension between technological systems and human presence. Points of Inaccessibility asks whether connection is still possible within environments shaped by mediation and delay, or whether we have become isolated points within the very networks that promise proximity. What possibilities for relation persist within environments organized by algorithms and interruption? And how are we meant to understand presence when so much of it is constructed at a distance?

Points of Inaccessibility will be released on BioVinyl on February 6, 2026, with audiovisual performances planned throughout 2026.

Mastered by Stephan Mathieu
Artwork by Jaco Schilp
Design and layout by Daniel Castrejón
Artist photo by Iulia Alexandra Magheru.

A house is something that is so deeply temporary, yet it can hold so much energy. How do we carry or leave behind those energies while transitioning into new spaces? How does each space we occupy for some time shape us and how do we tear ourselves away from it and its influence once it’s time to go? These are some of the core questions behind CC Sorensen’s new album for mappa, ‘Phantom Rooms’ – it’s a record about movement, change, transformation, family, juxtapositions… but most of all, home.

CC Sorensen was reflecting a lot on their childhood home in rural Kansas, USA while working on this music. The album could be characterised by a familial, chamber feel and both of CC Sorensen’s brothers, Ryan and Nyal Ruehlen, make an appearance on ‘Phantom Rooms’, among other instrumentalists. Using a wide palette of sounds – CC Sorensen alone in charge of keyboards, software instruments, voice, electronics, percussion, trumpet, guitar and field recordings, in addition to guests on pedal steel, voice, chimes, saxophone and drumset – the American musician crafts music as mysterious as it is inviting. The idea behind it would be almost surrealist – ghostly rooms in houses where we live – if we all didn’t know exactly what CC Sorensen means. Home isn’t something concrete, but it’s also not just an abstract concept. It’s a space beyond space; home in itself is a phantom room we enter. And what enables us to enter is the object of exploration here.

CC Sorensen’s approach is playful – tracks like “Beat Bot” and “Plastic Portals” are almost fun – but also contemplative. They make thoughtful, meandering chamber music intertwined with field recordings and electronics. Reeds, strings and percussion often set the atmosphere – sometimes airy, gentle, at other points more insistent – as the music grapples with departure, instability, deep reflection and imagined future spaces. Especially in the closing “Bexar” there’s a tangible yearning for a stable home, a longing to rekindle and keep ablaze this beautiful familial connection to a physical place. It’s both music that invites to reflect and music that in itself reflects; desires, hopes and dreams.

Stoop Kid is the jangly indie rock project of Diest-born Jens Rubens. After Camp Careful (2021) and Mount Cope (2023), Stoop Kid returns with his third full-length album Office Overdue, a ten-song collection that captures the quiet fatigue, flickering humor, and
fragile hope of keeping it together in a world that won't slow down.

'Office Overdue' is a collection of songs Jens made at home in his modest home studio. For this album, he wanted to let go of pressure and expectations more than ever, and only work on music when he genuinely felt like it.No fancy studio, no producer, just walking upstairs and messing around. The result doesn't always sound perfectly polished: the drums are sometimes clumsily programmed and more than a few wrong notes made it onto the record. The guitars were allowed to hit a bit harder this time, with the '90s slacker vibes coming through more prominently. The result is a record that feels raw and honest, and above all, was made purely out of enthusiasm.

Office Overdue explores the attempt to keep functioning in everyday life while the world around us feels on the verge of collapse. The songs move between mental exhaustion and self-reflection, carried by a dry, sometimes bitter humour that helps lighten the weight. The album focuses on repetition and routine, and on the tension between wanting to care for others and being trapped inside one's own head. Themes of anxiety, guilt and dissociation recur throughout, but are always accompanied by small moments of connection, gentle resistance and acceptance. Office Overdue embraces the mess, the doubt and the false notes, without drawing grand conclusions. Not everything is resolved, but the persistence remains.

Inspired by Thomas Hardy"s poem Transformations, ETERNAL BIRTH is Eliza Marshall"s debut solo album and a powerful statement on connection, ancestry and renewal. The album traces the cycles of life from conception to death, revering the natural world as a living archive of our ancestors and exploring the unseen bonds that connect past, present and future generations. Across the record, Marshall creates a rich, cinematic soundscape blending classical, folk and world traditions with flutes, whistles, bansuri, spoken word, percussion and electronics. Produced by Ivor Novello Award recipient Graeme Pleeth, the album features an international line-up of world-class musicians including Ady Thioune and Ansumana Suso (Senegal / The Gambia), Drew Morgan and Donal Rogers (USA / UK), Johnny Kalsi (UK) and Lena Jonsson (Sweden). Influences range from Steve Reich to Paul Simon, while remaining rooted in Marshall"s distinctive compositional voice.

For over a decade, Hyunhye Seo a core member of Xiu Xiu, in her solo work navigates the precarious edges where composition dissolves into pure gesture. Through ecstatic piano improvisations, restless percussive attacks and an expansive use of acoustic space, she constructs layered sonic environments that move across the boundaries of noise, avant-garde jazz, ambient and contemporary classical music. Her performances reveal an unfiltered process of listening and creation - a practice in which thinking becomes the enemy, and surrender the only viable strategy.

Continuation captures one such surrender. Recorded live at MAO - Museo d'Arte Orientale in Turin during the exhibition Rabbit Inhabits the Moon – The Art of Nam June Paik in the Mirror of Time, this cascading piano improvisation unfolds as a dialogue between performer, space and the particular acoustics of a museum built to house contemplative objects. Jamie Stewart processes the sound in real time; Giuseppe Ielasi shapes the final mix. What emerges is a work of charged immediacy - restless gestures giving way to passages of unexpected tenderness, noise and silence trading places in continuous exchange. The title is precise: this is music that refuses conclusion, that exists in a state of perpetual becoming. On Side B, Continuous Extension offers an unprecedented response. Phew - the pioneering figure of Japanese avant-garde music since the late 1970s - was invited by curators Chiara Lee and Freddie Murphy to reinterpret Seo's performance. Working with synthesizer and subtle processing, Phew distills the resonances of Continuation into a new electronic landscape - waves of abstraction that echo like reflections in sound, tracing the harmonic tensions of Seo's playing into territories she herself did not visit.

The accompanying booklet includes an essay by Bruno Lo Turco exploring the deep connections between improvisation and Buddhist thought, and a written reflection by Seo on her own practice of surrender and listening.

Continuation is released on Ubi Kū, the record label of the Unione Buddhista Italiana. The cover reproduces Avalokitesvara "Water and Moon" from the Museo d'Arte Orientale "E. Chiossone" in Genoa - the bodhisattva of compassion gazing at the reflection of the moon in water. Like that reflection, this music exists fully in the present, complete and unrepeatable.

“Recording this album felt like the crescendo of years of struggling to understand myself. It can get quite claustrophobic living inside my head.” ‘At Home in My Mind’ is an open invite into the world of Halifax indie artist, Ellur (Ella McNamara). The album is a journey around Ellur’s mind, it dips into different musical genres that have shaped her for the past 24 years – from the 90s indie rock she grew up with, to glitch-pop she discovered in her late teens to the alt-folk she cherishes now. Ellur has created a warm abode for her thoughts and experiences as a young woman growing up in Yorkshire’s Calderdale Valley and ‘At Home In My Mind’ beds them all in, safely together. ‘At Home In My Mind’ has been produced by Joel Johnston (Far Caspian) and recorded from his Leeds studio. Johnston and Ellur first worked together on her previous EP, ‘God Help Me Now’ – a stunning body of work that saw Ellur’s fanbase bloom and received praise from national press, radio and an impressive international artists. The buzz around Ellur has lead to a very busy live calendar throughout 2025, including debut festival slots in US and EU, over 14 Summer festival plays in UK (including Latitude, Truck, Big Feastival) and sold out headline shows across the UK. ‘At Home In My Mind’ expands on themes Ellur draws on in her ‘God Help Me Now EP’, particularly an overarching theme of connection. Ellur connecting with her childhood memories, listening to her honest feelings, but most importantly, Ellur wants ‘At Home In My Mind’ to be an arm extended out, looking for people who need a hand to hold.

US sax player Stanley J. Zappa and Finnish drummer Simo Laihonen come together on the new album "Muster Point" on We Jazz Records, August 7. The two students of Milford Graves add bassist Ville Rauhala on a couple of tracks to make a bold and adventurous album captured both live and in the studio while Zappa was touring in Finland with the Black Motor musicians. This is a set full of fire and thunder, but also features some more meditative spiritual jazz. RIYL: Milford Graves, ESP-Disk', spiritual jazz

"Muster Point" consists of short trio bursts ("Muster Point I-IV"), deep duo cuts such as "Pleasant Avenue" and the inspired material linking the stylistic bookends. The music herein comes from the long standing tradition of independent improvised jazz music, and moves forward in the now, relying in the natural communication and the chemistry between the musicians. At its core, the album is a testament to the importance personal connections between like-minded creative musicians in creating something new.

Stanley J. Zappa, originally from New Jersey, now based in Oliver, BC (Canada) is a highly expressive musician whose career has so far progressed largely under the radar. Part of the lineage of a musical family (his uncle Frank should need no introduction), Zappa's story is that of a true craftsman, now coming into fruition with a like-minded collaborator, Simo Laihonen. Laihonen is best known from his long-standing trio formation Black Motor, also featuring bassist Ville Rauhala featured on the trio tracks on this recording.

Technological agitation. Narcissism fatigue. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms keeping Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night and the themes at the heart of her latest release, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. The celestial-influenced folk album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising. (Pitchfork, NPR, and The Guardian admiringly named it one of 2019's best.) While Titanic Rising was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos. "We're in a fully functional shit show," Mering says. "My heart is a glow stick that's been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness." And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow opens with the wistful, winsome "It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody," a song about the interconnectivity of all beings, despite the fraying of society around us. "I was asking a lot of questions while writing these songs. Hyper-isolation kept coming up," Mering says. "Our culture relies less and less on people. Something is off, and even though the feeling appears differently for each individual, it is universal." Other tracks follow in kind. The lullaby-like "Grapevine" chronicles the splintering of a human connection. The otherworldly dirge "God Turn Me into a Flower" serves as allegory about our collective hubris. "The Worst Is Done" is an ominous warning, set against a deceivingly breezy pop melody. "Chaos is natural. But so is negentropy, or the tendency for things to fall into order," she says. "These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they shed light on the meaning of our contemporary disillusionment."

DIN SYNC DUB is an exploration of communication through sound. Six tightly packed experimental dub tracks use bass-heavy vibrations to rattle both body and mind, pushing the limits of self-expression in the hope of fostering deeper human connection.

The drive for more efficient and precise communication tools—whether between man and machine or machine and machine—has been a foundational force in the evolution of technology. This duality, the way we interface with computers and the way we speak to one another, is at the heart of DIN SYNC DUB. For this album, N1_SOUND looks back to 1980, drawing inspiration from Roland’s Din Sync—a 40-year-old synchronization technology once used to link musical machines in perfect harmony. While connecting machines to produce precisely sequenced music is nothing new, it’s the tension between perfection and imperfection—the mistakes of both man and machine—that gives DIN SYNC DUB its voice, its emotional rawness.

The journey begins with “Horizontal Hang”, which crashes through the door with a relentless bassline and crystalline synths. “Such Love” introduces a throbbing, guitar-driven groove, while “Intuition Dub” channels the spirit of Jah Shaka, offering a rhythmic pulse that echoes dub’s deep roots. “Us All” provides a moment of introspection with its sparse, three-dimensional melodies, before “Joy” reintroduces chaos, creating a post-dubstep soundscape that dismantles everything in its path. The album closes with “Mauzy” , a hopeful yet fragmented conclusion, reflecting the ever-evolving nature of technology and connection.

By the mid-to-late 1980s, Din Sync was superseded by the more widely adopted MIDI, yet obsolescence is built into the nature of all technology. Just as our relationship with machines shifts and fades, so too does our understanding of how those changes shape us. Before we can grasp the impact, the world has already moved on.

DIN SYNC DUB, the first full-length LP from Spiritual World, pulses with energy, on the edge of malfunction—a manifestation of the tension between the digital and the organic, the past and the present.

Brooklyn-born David Forman was steeped in soul music and Brill Building songcraft in the early 1970s while earning his living as a Hollywood set builder. He developed a soul singing style through his friendship with Aaron Neville, with whom he used to sing and jam on his apartment rooftop. He met Jack Nitzsche through his work on the 1972 film Greaser’s Palace (for which Nitzsche created the soundtrack) and later asked Nitzsche to produce this album. Forman’s original record deal with Davis was shepherded by the critic Stephen Holden of Rolling Stone and later the New York Times, and later by Paul Nelson, also of Rolling Stone.Fun fact about Forman: He was an assistant to Phillip Petit on his daring tight rope walk between the twin towers in 1974. And Forman later became a jingle writer and wrote and sang the famous Tums theme song (“Tum tum-tum-tum, TUUUUMS."This release features remastered audio, a plethora of archival photos, and a 24-page booklet with a 5500-word essay from noted journalist and producer Joe Hagan, a staff writer at Vanity Fair and producer of the 2022 compilation 'Earl's Closet' for Light In The Attic. Hagan is also fully committed to promoting the release through his network of key media gatekeepers, as well as his personal connections with legendary musicians, writers, and other cultural tastemakers.

At the end of the Sixties, the production of soundtracks for small and big classics of Italian cinema is now joined by another business which has proved to be less profitable but more creative and, in best case, free from the constraints imposed by clients on duty: the composition of music libraries. Almost all of the artists for the eighth art have finalized at least one or more music libraries. Names famous and not, old and young composers, real outsiders and meteors, usually hidden behind pseudonyms: this is the case, for example, of Braen and Peymont. The first needs no introduction, it was the one adopted by the former arranger, multi- instrumentalist, singer and composer Alessandro Alessandroni. The second is closely linked to the mysterious American composer, but resident in Italy, David Hoyt Kimball. The two are authors in different measure of an interesting album with an experimental background, “Paese Sotto Inchiesta” (1971), originally published by Flirt Records.

The titles of the tracks appear in connection with the socio-cultural climate of Italy after 1968 and can be relocated as a background for journalistic-like images. The latter is a hypothesis not supported by facts, but some titles seem to be referred to the perception of a subsisting economic backwardness of the southern regions compared to the other ones; to a situation of collective tension, thanks to the global revolutions; in addition to the new concerns with an ecological background. Overall, the seventeen tracks on the album are mostly 'dirty', characterized by an even atonal setting, with long repetitions in a noisy key, more fundamental reverbs and echoes for the different keyboard instruments. In a few words, abstract sounds, some guitar notes, echoes of Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, flute melodies and proto- ambient intuitions. Composers like Alessandro Alessandroni and David Hoyt Kimball deserve to be rediscovered.

*Following the essence of the work, for this press, MPI release a 100% recycled vinyl that reduce waste, minimize environmental impact and support the planet*

After spending much of the last years focusing on the evolution of his own instrument, the drummophone, the release of ZERO,999… reveals a new paradigm in La Foresta's work and career.

In this album he collects fragments of live performances and site-specific installations conducted over the last decade, with and without the drummophone — reimagining and repurposing them as compositional elements that he has interwoven with recent studio recordings and collaborations to form eleven viscerally powerful pieces of overwhelming rhythmic and textural density.

La Foresta weaves together these captured moments in time, while employing combinatory strategies inspired by Italo Calvino's tarot stories in "Il castello dei destini incrociati," forging relationships and connections between recordings from the collaborators and his own. In approaching accompanying and augmenting these recordings, Riccardo, in the role of percussionist and composer explores the tension between his personal and academic focus on rhythmic structures and his fascination with repurposing the drum as a durational instrument.

Contributions from collaborators include the synthetic textures of Valerio Tricoli, Anthony Pateras, Aleksandra Słiż, and Renato Grieco, the vocalizations of Antonina Nowacka and Sara Persico, and the guitar experimentations of Ale Hop and Stefano Pilia, bringing together a distributed ensemble of musicians pulling apart the orthodoxies of their own instruments and techniques. Through the interaction of these elements, La Foresta imagines a causal network that binds, integrates and informs fragmented contexts, performers and performances, exploiting new possibilities of the drummophone.


ZERO,999… is conceived as a suite where sound and time are communicated simultaneously at different orders of scale, a single strike of a drum is a drone if slowed down one thousand times, an hour-long drone is a brief tick in the clock of geological time. A seemingly static object, such as the number 1, can both be defined by its fixedness, and as a process in which eternally approaching (0,999...) is the same as arriving.











k 11: EyeContact (Nereo`s) feat. Stefano Pilia

After the release of her highest charting album to date in 2024, Elles Bailey is back with brand new album "Can"t Take My Story Away". Fiercely independent, the British singer-songwriter has been steadily honing her craft for the better part of a decade. Her magnificent voice - instantly recognisable, full of grit - weaves stories of resilience and survival, of hope and new beginnings. In her music, we find liberation as she picks at the threads of human connection, carefully unravelling the truths we might not have realised about ourselves. Produced by Luke Potashnick and recorded with a stellar lineup of musicians separate from her live band, the eleven tracks of "Can"t Take My Story Away" tie together to form the album Elles has been destined to make. An honest and vulnerable glimpse into Elles" story, the record was created over a three year period, using songswhose origins can be traced back almost 10 years, "Can"t Take My Story Away" is Elles" life placed carefully together to form a dazzling, kaleidoscopic story.

After the release of her highest charting album to date in 2024, Elles Bailey is back with brand new album "Can"t Take My Story Away". Fiercely independent, the British singer-songwriter has been steadily honing her craft for the better part of a decade. Her magnificent voice - instantly recognisable, full of grit - weaves stories of resilience and survival, of hope and new beginnings. In her music, we find liberation as she picks at the threads of human connection, carefully unravelling the truths we might not have realised about ourselves. Produced by Luke Potashnick and recorded with a stellar lineup of musicians separate from her live band, the eleven tracks of "Can"t Take My Story Away" tie together to form the album Elles has been destined to make. An honest and vulnerable glimpse into Elles" story, the record was created over a three year period, using songswhose origins can be traced back almost 10 years, "Can"t Take My Story Away" is Elles" life placed carefully together to form a dazzling, kaleidoscopic story.

Master composer-pianist RIOPY returns with his fifth album “Be Love” - his first key music release since 2023’s “Thrive”. RIOPY’s releases have a history of RIAA Gold certifications, breaking records for topping the Classical music charts, and reaching over a billion streams. His music explores healing and resilience through sound. “Be Love” sees RIOPY sing for the very first time on a release. Through partnering with Lana Del Rey in 2023, RIOPY discovered the powerful, symbiotic connection between singing and the piano, leading to tracks like "Feeling Safe", "Long Way Home", "Come With Me". The 12 track album is comprised of 6 cinematic piano-instrumental tracks - a return to his roots of cinematic solo piano - and 6 more expansive tracks where RIOPY experiments with his voice: from meditative whispers stimulating his vagus nerve, to raw and emotive lyricism. The composer-instrumentalist has utilised numerous ways to produce sound, just never his own voice. “I had this compulsion, this need to use my voice, because I think it’s one of the biggest fears I’ve had through my life. I started just whispering… it’s not a new me, it’s just an expansion of what I do. It felt right. I needed to do this.”

Step into The Colors Within, where Totsuko sees emotions as colors and discovers real connections through music with Kimi and Rui. kensuke ushio’s score brings their world to life with glowing melodies and intimate textures.

This vinyl edition pairs the soundtrack with special artwork from the film and a translucent milky-clear LP inspired by its soft, dreamlike palette.

A must-have for fans who felt every hue of this beautiful story.

CLIQUE exists not as a traditional band but as a forum for radical discourse within hardcore's landscape. Formed in 2022 in California with members spanning the Bay Area and Los Angeles, CLIQUE has quickly made a name for itself through an undeniably vicious live show and a depth that's been long missing from the scene. In a world increasingly defined by individual recognition, CLIQUE operates anonymously, rejecting the spotlight in favor of their message and finding strength in collective struggle.

Unlike many of their contemporaries, CLIQUE was formed with explicit political intent. In an era where hardcore’s content has drifted toward toothless posturing, they aim to reintroduce radical thought into a scene that has lost much of its subversive edge. Drawing from influences spanning Crass to Neurosis, Earth Crisis to MBV, they forge a sound that defies easy categorization while undoubtedly belonging to hardcore.

CLIQUE isn't interested in raising awareness for impotent establishment causes or upholding the system. Their vision extends beyond reform to revolution - the dismantling of structures that exploit people, degrade cultures and destroy the earth. Each show is an invitation for people of all walks of life to participate, a reminder that hardcore’s true strength lies in the connection of everybody in the room, erasing the boundary between stage and crowd.

As they put it: "This is a prayer for those we've lost along the way. This is a celebration of our liberation to come. This is a eulogy for the state and its worthless existence." In an increasingly commercialized hardcore landscape, CLIQUE stands apart - anonymous, uncompromising, and unwavering in their conviction that another world is possible. The message is clear: no one is coming to save us, we can only make our own future, together. This music is both a reflection of our hellish reality and an invitation to imagine and create something better. Clique up. Say nothing.

George Gadd + The Aftermath is a Nottingham-based Indie-emo four-piece band. George has been performing since 16 years old and was joined by The Aftermath in 2017. They are set to release their debut album ‘Too Many Ghosts...’ on 5th September 2025. This captures a decade of growth and includes fan favourites from over the years. Taking influence from acts such as Bright Eyes, Manchester Orchestra and Death Cab for Cutie, they create emotionally resonant songs built for catharsis and connection with fans. George Gadd + The Aftermath's DIY set has seen them tour across the UK & Europe, with a few US solo shows. They have performed alongside Frank Turner, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, The Xcerts and more! They have made festival appearances at 2000 Trees, Y Not, Dot to Dot, Beat the Streets and Splendour. While also being confirmed for Y Not and 2000 Trees in 2025.

Dare To Wonder is the new album by London jazz rap duo Summers Sons. Two brothers, surname Summers. Turt on vocals and Slim on production.

Dare To Wonder consists of 12 songs about love, life and connection. Compared to previous Sons’ albums, it’s safe to call Dare To Wonder a feel good album in its best sense. It doesn’t turn a blind eye to the madness of the world today. But it dares to take a step back and marvel at the beauty of the world around us. It dares to wonder. Wonder awakens our curiosity and leaving us thirsty for more knowledge. But it also humbles us – keeping us from thinking we know everything already.

Since 2018 Summers Sons have released five albums on Melting Pot Music (Undertones, Uhuru, The Rain, Nostalgia, Still Nothing Still) – which accumulated over 50 million streams to date – and a string of high profile collaborations with The Silhouettes Project, Twit One, C.Tappin, Nix Northwest and Frankie Stew & Harvey Gunn.


INFOTEXT DE

Dare To Wonder ist das neue Album des Londoner Jazz-Rap-Duos Summers Sons – zwei Brüder mit dem Nachnamen Summers. Turt am Mikrofon und Slim an den Beats.

Dare To Wonder umfasst 12 Songs über Liebe, Leben und Verbundenheit. Im Vergleich zu ihren bisherigen Alben darf man Dare To Wonder mit gutem Gewissen als Feel-Good-Album im besten Sinne bezeichnen. Es verschließt nicht die Augen vor dem Wahnsinn der heutigen Welt, aber es wagt die Perspektive, um die Schönheit um uns herum neu zu betrachten. Es wagt, zu staunen. Staunen weckt unsere Neugier und macht uns hungrig nach mehr Wissen. Gleichzeitig macht es uns demütig – und bewahrt uns davor, zu glauben, wir wüssten schon alles.

Seit 2018 haben Summers Sons fünf Alben über Melting Pot Music veröffentlicht (Undertones, Uhuru, The Rain, Nostalgia, Still Nothing Still) – mit über 50 Millionen Streams – und hochkarätige Kollaborationen mit The Silhouettes Project, Twit One, C. Tappin, Nix Northwest und Frankie Stew & Harvey Gunn veröffentlicht.

Two musicians, two different folk music traditions, two soundscapes hundreds of miles apart and one nightingale song. Nightingale melodies inspired this intoxicating folk album by Slovakian flautist Michaela Antalová and Norwegian double bassist Adrian Myhr. The Oslo-based duo’s album follows their meditative 2021 debut Zvony (Bells), which featured harmonium, field recordings of crickets and a Slovak male choir.

Sing Nightingale is a translation of ‘Zaspievaj Slavicku’, a traditional Slovakian song. The duo experiments with this theme of the songbird; exploring instrumentation from around the world and its rich tonal textures. On ‘Night Singing’, Michaela plays a Slovakian fujara, a tall, upright wooden bass flute originally played by shepherds. The fujara’s smooth, deep tones are laid over a recording of a nightingale by musicologist Tomáš Šenkyřík, with Michaela’s flute mimicking the bird’s nocturnal chirps and warbles to attract a mate. Michaela is carefully imitating the bird, who is in turn improvising his melody. In ‘Worm Moon’, named after the springtime full moon in March, when nightingales return from Africa where they have spent the cold winter, Adrian’s slow and resonant double bass is brightened by the sweet trills of a real nightingale and Michaela’s fujara.

The Norwegian Hardanger fiddle or hardingfele, features on two specially written songs; ‘Lament’ and ‘Rosenhave’ (rose garden) which bring together the nightingale’s symbolic associations with undying love, sacrifice, deep sorrow and loss. Celebrated Hardanger fiddle player Helga Myhr plays alongside Adrian’s double bass and Michaela’s seljefløyte or willow flute. Helga also plays on ‘Flagre’ (Flutter) and ‘Dance Nightingale’. The seljefløyte is very similar to the Slovak overtone flute koncovka. By using this Norwegian instrument, Adrian and Michaela’s new compositions are reminiscent of both countries’ folk traditions. Folk music often comes from unknown sources; the original writer may not be known and the melodies are typically passed down orally. Michaela and Adrian’s project merges the different folk musics from their respective countries, finding common ground in the sonic qualities of instruments and evolving a new hybrid folk style, authentic in its own right.

For the stunning adaptation of the traditional Slovakian fujara song ‘Dolu Ovce Dolinami’ (‘Sheep down the valleys’), Adrian’s friend Javid Afsari Rad plays the Iranian santur, similar to the traditional Slovak string instrument cimbalom. By coincidence, Iran’s national bird is the nightingale, making another unexpected connection to the symbolic bird. These 11 tracks are a beguiling fusion of traditional folk styles, approached by musicians from an avant-garde, improv and jazz background. The album pays tribute to a hugely expressive bird and finds a strange, soothing universality in the folk sounds of different countries.

Mole Audio 08 is coming up, and we’re proud to welcome RSCA with their debut release.

RSCA is a collaborative project by Eduardo de la Calle and Aureal, born from a shared vision to expand the boundaries of techno into a more minimalist, abstract, and experimental territory.

Driven by the use of analog machines, the duo delves into hypnotic repetition, rich sonic textures, and the pursuit of both a physical and emotional experience through sound.

RSCA invites listeners into a deep, sensory journey, where rhythm transforms into a medium for introspection and connection.

FONTINE’s debut full-length Good Buddy arrives October 7, 2025, marking a gritty, heartfelt turn from her folk-leaning EP. Recorded live to tape with her road-tested band, the album captures the loose, unfiltered energy of her live shows, pairing raw instrumentation with FONTINE’s powerhouse vocals and emotionally rich songwriting. It’s a rock record with a sensitive core — scrappy, cathartic, and full of heart. The title track, “Good Buddy,” uses CB radio slang for queer love as a playful, anthemic entry point into a record about identity, connection, and vulnerability. FONTINE, who identifies as Indigenous and queer, brings humour, honesty, and a deep sense of place to her writing. From personal struggle to activist fire, her lyrics are grounded and bold, wrapped in a sound that blurs the lines between alt-rock, Americana, and indie folk. With over a million streams, national CBC radio support, and a growing live presence across Canada, FONTINE is emerging as one of the most vital new voices in Canadian roots music. Her breakout charisma, fearless storytelling, and genre-fluid style make Good Buddy a debut worth turning up loud.

Strolling through the world by Biboul Darouiche & The Bantu Jazz Connection marks the first vinyl release on Crispy Water and is a vibrant fusion of African rhythms, jazz improvisation, and soulful storytelling, blending ancestral rhythm with contemporary jazz expression. Recorded with an ensemble of outstanding musicians, the album moves effortlessly between groove, spirit, and freedom — connecting continents through sound.

BIBOUL DAROUICHE is a singer, percussionist, composer and head of the ensemble. By playing the conga, djembe, calimba and - the African treetrunk drum (also called nkul or tam-tam, which by the way should not be missing at any concert!) Darouiche brings a very special color to his music. He works mainly in Europe, but his engagements also take him to the Middle East, the countries of the CIS, Brazil and the USA. Since1995 he has been a member of Klaus Doldinger's Passport. He has also worked with musicians such as Al Di Meola, Pee Wee Ellis, Roy Ayers, Graham Haynes, Paquito D'Rivera and the Jazz Baltica Ensemble.

The Austrian multi-instrumentalist and producer MICHAEL HORNEK, who is part of the permanent cast of Klaus Doldinger's Passport as a keyboardist, plays keyboards, percussion and sings. His free-jazzy percussive playing inspires every listener. Hornek's keyboard skills can be heard on over 750 music productions, and the trend is of course increasing!

Mauritian bassist LINLEY MARTHE is one of the world's best bassists. He was a long time permanent member of the band Joe Zawinul Syndicate,worked with musicians like Dave Liebmann, Richard Galliano, Omar Hakimand many more. Zawinul said of Linley Marthe in an interview: “Linley is a phenomenon. I don't know if anyone can match him in terms of bass playing."

ROGER BIWANDU, french musician born and raised in Bordeaux/France, with roots from Congo (DRC) is an artist resident at l'Apollo bar in Bordeaux since june 1997, he plays there one time per month. He played with a lot of great musicians all over the world, with some heavy weights too, like Joe Zawinul, Salif Keita, Marcus Miller, Lee Ritenour, John Beasley, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Franck McComb, to name a few.

From 1968 through to the mid 1970’s the reggae beat began to slow down,some say due to the extreme heat hitting down onto Kingston Town and its surrounding enclaves. People needed something less strenuous to dance to. The Ska and Rocksteady Sounds (see 101 Orange Street KS007) that rocked Jamaica previously, had now found a slower tempo and become more ‘Dread’ lyrically to suit the times. Reggae music has always moved within the social climate it found itself in and this set here, as we ‘Return To Orange Street’ was ROOTS ROCK REGGAE TIME....

The Rastafarian message that runs through this collection of ‘Reality’, sometimes labelled ‘Sufferers’ music,is strong and works on many levels. It can come across on a heavy rhythm and vocal cut. Its example represented here by Prince Jazzbo’s ‘Dread in a Earth’ and ‘I Roy’s ‘Roots Man Time’, moving through to the popular new sounds of the DJ’s working over an old rhythm and alongside its existing vocal. As with Busty Brown working with Delroy Wilson's ‘Know Your Friend’ and Mr Jah Stitch working over Johnny Clarke’s ‘Roots Natty Roots’ to produce an even more dreader ‘True Born African’. The heartfelt lyric can also convey this message as we can see when Horace Andy laments ‘Where is the Love’ and Delroy Wilson again shows us on his ‘Who Cares’ cut. The great Twinkle Brothers also put the message across on their two cuts we have here, ’Too Late’ one of their lost classics if ever there was one and the thoughtful ‘It’s Not Who You Know’,being another prime example.

Orange Street itself is always at the heart of all reggae's musical changes and some singers also ride these waves as Mr Cornell Campbell shows us here with two cuts. The mournful ‘Too Be Loved’ and his uplifting ‘Girl of My Dreams’, which uses the same rhythm as our previously mentioned Prince Jazzbo’s 'Dread in a Earth’. Showing us that firstly you can’t keep a good rhythm down and secondly that two if not more great songs can work from the same source point. The light hearted ‘Vengeful’ lyric also worked in this period when artists spared off to each other on records to vent their frustrations. As we can hear here with Mr Lee Perry’s ‘You Funny Boy’. The song snipping back at a previous employer over what he felt were his misdoings to an under appreciated Mr Perry. We have culled these tracks together to show that the Dread Roots feel of the 1970’s came across in many guises and even in earlier songs these sentiments were also prevalent. As represented in Slim Smith’s almost bluesy feel in ‘Trying To Find a Home’, never a truer statement in Kingston's ghetto areas.

Well we hope you enjoy this musical journey and make a connection with messages portrayed here, as Mr Monty Morris points out on his contribution to this collection ‘Times Are Dread’.... Dread indeed.....

Cintura Interna is João Hã’s new release for Sucata Tapes, a work shaped by accident, drift, and unlikely connections. Its guiding notion comes from “Música Careca” (Bald Music) — a strange term apparently used by Jean Dubuffet to describe his own sound experiments. Dubuffet wasn’t a musician, but he was bald; the phrase lingers as an apt description for music that is naïve without innocence: amateur bruitism, soft sound, raw and direct, where intention is left exposed to errancy.
The piece itself came together without project or plan, eventually forming what Hã calls an “accidental Frankenstein” — or perhaps Frankenoise. Built from recordings made more than 15 years ago on cassette and obsolete equipment, mixed with more recent material, Cintura Interna bridges time and decay, refusing diaristic or documentary framing.
As an unexpected detour, the release also includes a version of the garage classic Louie Louie.

Her music is a form of auditory interpretation, powered by curiosity and her toolkit of modular, analog, and rare synthesizers (including her signature Buchla), orchestral textures, and voice. Since her first self-releases in 2012 (Tides), she has explored the endless possibilities of electronic instruments and the relationship between sound, shape, color, body movement, and expression. GUSH follows Kaitlyn's recent collaboration with Hot Chip's Joe Goddard on the 2024 Neptunes EP, and it marks the first taste of new music since her 2022 full-length Lets Turn It Into Sound, which was nominated for the LIBERA Awards Best Electronic Album of the Year and won the praise of NPR Music, Pitchfork, The Guardian, Bandcamp, and more. In GUSH, she sets her sights on aesthetics, focusing on the heightened awareness of and presence in the world, where every interaction whether with people, objects, or nature has the potential to become a moment of connection, and personification.

Following their two previous releases, the group--led by the charismatic vocalist Ms. Kennedy and her brilliant musical partner Ondre J (known as Gregory Porter's longtime Hammond organist) - presents a work that fuses funk, soul, and jazz with gripping pop songs and heartfelt ballads, all driven by groove, depth, and Ms. Kennedy's unmistakable voice. The album will be released on CD and LP via Leopard Records. Born from genuine conversations, spontaneous ideas, and a desire to move people through authenticity, 'Humanity' was recorded in the band's Brooklyn home base. The album tells stories of joy and sorrow, self- doubt and self- love, loneliness and connection.

With 'Humanity', Kennedy Administration deliver a record that feels like a soul party, an embrace, and an existential reflection all at once. It's music for overthinkers, outsiders, smartphone scrollers, dancers, and anyone who wants to feel a little less alone. Highlights include Mark Lettieri's (Snarky Puppy) fiery guitar solo and a moving duet with US gospel singer Doobie Powell. Having herself overcome a period of homelessness during the pandemic and rediscovered her voice through music, Ms. Kennedy turns this album into a profoundly personal yet universal statement.

Swimming Paul’s music has always lived in the push-and-pull between euphoria and melancholy; the rare kind of electronic music that can make you cry while your body keeps moving.



On Smiling Through the Pain 2 (out October 24 via Headroom Records), the French-born, London-based producer doubles down on that emotional duality, delivering an album that feels as much like a diary as it does a DJ set.

Over the course of 15 tracks, Paul stitches together late-night catharsis, suburban nostalgia, and the jagged tenderness of early adulthood. The record is sequenced like an unbroken night out: the giddy anticipation, the sudden moments of reflection, the quiet comedown as the sun edges in. It’s an album that refuses to treat joy and sadness as opposites, they coexist here, often in the same chord progression.



“I don’t want to escape the feelings, I want to bring them with me” Paul says. “If you can’t stop thinking about something, you might as well dance with it.”

That philosophy runs through the singles: the emotional release of Holly (with Junior Simba), the aching nostalgia of Different Time, the hypnotic haze of Hard 2 Sleep, and the house-driven Drinking to Get Drunk, a bittersweet ode to nights spent outrunning your own thoughts. Elsewhere, Liza M1 folds heartbreak into an almost triumphant piano hook, while Shine a Light urges listeners to take risks and live without hesitation—as if youth’s boldness could be bottled.



Since debuting in 2023, Swimming Paul has quietly built an empire on emotional resonance: 150 million streams across platforms, 1.9 million monthly listeners on Spotify and more than 50 editorial placements (including Dance Party, Crying on the Dancefloor, Electronic Rising….), 10,000+ radio spins worldwide, and sold-out tours across Europe and North America. His sound has earned co-signs from BBC Radio 1, Triple J, KCRW, Sirius XM and a wave of DJs who value melody as much as momentum.

But Smiling Through the Pain 2 isn’t chasing charts, it’s chasing connections. Paul’s global fanbase, nurtured through a lively Discord community and nights on the road, has become a two-way conversation, with fans’ stories feeding back into the music’s emotional core.
This autumn, Paul takes the album to stages that match its ambition, from London to a string of US club dates, festivals and intimate pop ups designed for shared release.



Smiling Through the Pain 2 is an invitation to feel everything at once. To sweat through the sadness. To let your guard down under strobe lights. To realise that the best nights out don’t make you forget; they help you remember.

Karen Willems is a Belgian drummer/percussionist active in various fields. Started as a drummer in rock and pop bands. With a number of musicians she built up a tradition within improvised music and sound art. Since 2020, with ‘TERRE SOL’ Willems is searching for personal modifications within her play of instruments and objects, with the focus on solo work and compositions.

"When I make music, there’s no plan. I draw my inspiration from everyday life. Small encounters, people, and the greatest source, of course, is nature. There we find all the beauty, all the sounds we need. With my solo work I try to stay far away from my familiar drum set. Only then I can create a special universe. Eccentricity and playfulness go hand in hand with exercises in tension and release, and calls for connection in antisocial times. It's difficult in this world obsessed with productivity and results, and you really have to be crazy to release music these days. So ‘A Fool’s Guide to Reality’ is a fitting title." Karen Willems

All music performed by Karen Willems using citer, casio, fieldrecordings, tambourin, mikado, xylophon, pots, bells, kindergarten instruments, snare, noisebox, crispy shakers, synths, effects...

AOKI takamasa and Tujiko Noriko’s 2005 album »28« has become a cornerstone in the artists’ respective discographies. 20 years after its initial release, Keplar issues it on vinyl for the very first time. Three years in the making, »28« saw the sound artist and the avant-pop singer-songwriter combine their distinct aesthetics for an album that defied categorisation. Their combination of advanced electronic experimentation and pop appeal paved the way for a new generation of artists and turned »28« into an enduring fan favourite. Remastered by Stephan Mathieu, the reissue comes with a brand-new artwork by Joji Koyama and a changed track listing—authorised by Takamasa and Tujiko—for the vinyl version to fit it on a single LP, while the digital version remains identical to the original release.

Tujiko and Takamasa first shared the stage together after the turn of the millennium. Both were emerging solo artists, with Takamasa a mainstay on the Progressive Form label and Tujiko forging a connection with Mego in Vienna, Austria. »I simply liked Noriko’s voice and music, and since we often performed at the same events, it felt like a natural progression for us to start working together,« remembers Takamasa. They first collaborated in 2002 for two shows at the Fondation Cartier in Paris and at SonarLab in Barcelona, respectively. The first joint piece was a rework of Tujiko’s »Fly« from »Hard Ni Sasete (Make Me Hard)« by Takamasa, appearing as the album opener »Fly2« on »28.«

After that, the Paris-based Tujiko and Takamasa, still based in Osaka, worked sporadically and remotely on new material. For the first two years of their collaboration, the two met in the context of live events or Takamasa’s visits to the French capital to discuss their process and exchange hard drives while also occasionally sending each other CDrs in the mail. »Aoki made beats and sounds that complemented my music perfectly, building the foundation on which my voice could float,« Tujiko says today. Takamasa used hardware such as the Nord Modular, the Korg Z1, and the Korg ER-1, while also working with different kinds of software and plug-ins as well as Logic. Tujiko was using Cubase, her preferred piece of gear at the time being an AKAI MPC.

After Takamasa moved to Paris in 2004, this enabled the duo to finish the album together in person. Starting with its subtle use of glitches to the almost-anarchic way in which it deals with the structures of a song, »28« came to be an incomparably intricate album. 20 years on, it remains timeless because of its flawless synthesis of the cutting-edge avant-garde ideas of early 2000s electronica with an idiosyncratic but accessible pop sentiment. Both artists look back fondly—though not uncritically, with Takamasa noting a certain »youthfulness« in his contributions—to the album that was titled after their respective age at that time. »Maybe we should make ›51‹ now?,« quips Tujiko. See you in three years, perhaps.

NOW Music proudly presents the next release in our “NOW That’s What I Call An Era” series – NOW That's What I Call An Era - Disco: 1973-1980 – a dazzling celebration of the golden age of disco.



This stunning 3LP set, pressed on blue, violet and pink vinyl, showcases 48 essential tracks that lit up the dancefloors, charts, and airwaves at the height of disco fever — an era when glittering anthems, euphoric grooves, and iconic vocal performances defined nightlife around the world.



LP1 opens in iconic style with Chic’s monumental ‘Le Freak’ followed by Sister Sledge’s equally legendary ‘We Are Family’, and Gloria Gaynor’s empowering #1 ‘I Will Survive’. Anthems follow from Sylvester with ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ and Chaka Khan with ‘I’m Every Woman’, ahead of the timeless ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ by Candi Staton and the first side finishes with production by Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards on massive hits for Diana Ross with ‘Upside Down’, and Sheila & B. Devotion with ‘Spacer’. Flip the LP over for Amii Stewart’s version of ‘Knock On Wood’ followed by The Three Degrees, Eruption and the first smash from Boney M., ‘Daddy Cool’. The Village People topped the chart with ‘YMCA’ which has become an enduring party favourite, which leads to the infectious ‘Let’s All Chant’ from the Michael Zager Band, Lipps Inc. with ‘Funkytown’ and to close the first LP, sci-fi disco from Dee D. Jackson with ‘Automatic Lover’.



LP2 begins with Donna Summer’s epic version of ‘MacArthur Park’, before Earth, Wind & Fire with The Emotions bring pure euphoria on ‘Boogie Wonderland’, and McFadden & Whitehead with the floor-filling ‘Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now’. Great vocals from Marvin Gaye and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes come ahead of George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’, one of the collections’ earliest and inspirational moments. UK artist Tina Charles hit the top with ‘I Love To Love’, and Andrea True Connection complete the side with the ear-worm ‘More More More’ whilst over on the other side legends Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons hit dancefloor gold and the #1 spot with ‘December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)’, ahead of The Trammps with their era-defining ‘Disco Inferno’. A Taste Of Honey, Grace Jones and a second appearance from Diana Ross are up next – before the LP closes with an enduring classic, ‘Follow Me’ from Amanda Lear, Patrick Juvet’s ‘I Love America’, and Frantique with ‘Strut Your Funky Stuff’.



LP3 bursts to life with the international smash and UK #1, ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’ from Baccara, before a huge hit cover from Belle Epoque with ‘Black Is Black’. Next; Alicia Bridges, Rose Royce and UK chart toppers The Real Thing, ahead of funk-infused disco brilliance from Kool & The Gang and Barry White – whilst the side closer is Yvonne Elliman’s ‘If I Can’t Have You’, from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and over on the final side there’s a stellar run of Disco nuggets: kicking off with Elton John’s irresistible ‘Are You Ready For Love’, originally released in 1979 and a #1 in 2003 along with ‘Boogie Nights’ from Heatwave, The Emotions with ‘Best Of My Love’, and LaBelle’s influential ‘Lady Marmalade’. The anthemic ‘Got To Be Real’ from Cheryl Lynn is next ahead of the trio of closing tracks: Odyssey with the sublime ‘Native New Yorker’, Thelma Houston’s Grammy-winning ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’, and fittingly, Donna Summer’s iconic ‘Last Dance’, ending the collection in perfect style.



An unforgettable journey through the songs that defined the dancefloor: NOW That’s What I Call An Era – Disco: 1973-1980 — the definitive celebration of disco’s golden age.

2025 Repress!

Recorded in a remote cabin on the Devon coast, STILL OUT is an album-length collaboration between musician-filmmakers – and childhood friends – Will Cookson and Tom Haverly. A reflection on friendship, landscape and the passing of time, it inspired a road trip from North Yorkshire to North Devon they took together in the summer of 2024, and forms the soundtrack to a film of the same name which had its premiere screening as part of Stroud Film Festival in March 2025.

Like the film, STILL OUT is also an oblique homage to The KLF’s iconic 1990 album Chill Out, which the Gloucestershire-based pair revisited after it turned up unexpectedly a few years back in Tom’s dad’s record collection. Inspired to create their own recording using a similarly free-spirited process, Will and Tom relocated to the Devon coast in late summer 2023, splicing together a 40-minute mix from their personal archive of recordings and found sounds in a remote cabin with no electricity or mobile reception.

"It came together using cut-and-paste techniques, with ongoing shifts and tweaks,” says Will. “The final result was an audio collage that felt like something legendary hip hop producers The Bomb Squad might make - if ambient music was the only material in their sample library."

Using ‘ambient’ as a starting-point rather than an end in itself, they took inspiration from across the musical spectrum – classic-period Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Bill Evans, plus outliers such as 80s singer-songwriter Virginia Astley and the late DJ-producer Andrew Weatherall. The connections, though, are anything but obvious as the audio shifts seamlessly from field recordings and spoken-word interludes to mood pieces and snatches of vintage pop.

Edited and assembled using freely available open source programs, the source material was often radically altered using tools such as “PaulStretch”, a digital sound-morphing algorithm that allows users to stretch audio files to extreme lengths.

"When we found ourselves in a creative slump or unsure how to navigate a tricky part, we'd say, ‘Let's put some syrup on it and slow it down,’” says Tom. “That always helped us get back on track during late-night recording sessions at the cabin."

Part-soundtrack, part-meditative experiment, STILL OUT is intended as a reflection on the mental and emotional shift that occurs when stepping away from the routine of daily life – an album that forms a celebration of our ever-changing relationship to the world around us and the mystery of what it means to pass through time and space.

“The true follow up, 35 years later, to The KLF’s ‘Chill Out’”.
JD Twitch (Optimo).

An ambient journey reflecting on friendship, the British landscape - and The KLF’s landmark album Chill Out

"This record and film are just lovely. You need this in your life. Moo-Moo!” Balearic Mike (Down To The Sea & Back)

"The album is a perfect companion to the KLF classic, utilising the British countryside as the setting, occasionally reminding you that Mother Nature is not to be messed with.” Strictly Kev (DJ Food)

"A beautiful ambient journey into the landscape, taking the listener from reality to dream state and back again. A mystical realm full of mysterious chanting, rattling trains and sounds from the very depths of the earth."
Lally MacBeth & Matthew Shaw (Stone Club)

Cambridge’s acclaimed psych-folk quintet Fuzzy Lights return with their fifth album ‘Fen Creatures’. Following on from 2021’s critically lauded ‘Burials’ the band have created their most conceptually focussed work to date – a mediation on environmental crises that uses the folklore and history of East Anglia as a lens to examine humanity’s fractured relationship with the natural world.

The album operates across multiple historical timelines, from Iron Age hill forts to medieval plague houses, from Byron's Romantic-era environmental warnings to the immediate threat of rising sea levels, creating a temporal tapestry that weaves ancient stories with contemporary concerns.

Musically, the quintet, Rachel Watkins (vocals/violin), Xavier Watkins (guitar/electronics), Chris Rogers (guitar), Daniel Carney (bass), and Mark Blay (drums), have pushed deeper into experimental drone territories while maintaining the crystalline folk sensibilities that have become their signature.

Lead track ‘Greenteeth transforms the traditional cautionary tale of Jenny Greenteeth, the water spirit who lures children to their deaths. "When I read this story to my daughter, she was instantly drawn into it," Watkins notes. "There's something timeless about these tales and the way they speak to fundamental fears and connections that span generations."

Elsewhere, 'War Ditches' imagines the Iron Age dead of a Cambridge hill fort keeping watch over the land, their vigil ending as modern people lose connection with the earth. 'The Promise' creates an imaginary encounter with the ghosts of Landbeach village across multiple eras, connecting the 1665 plague with our recent pandemic experience through shared narratives of community resilience and loss.

Critics praised ‘Burials’ as "way beyond folk and folk in essence all at once" (Backseat Mafia) and "folk-rock looking back squarely at the early 1970s" (Financial Times), and 'Fen Creatures' promises to cement Fuzzy Lights' reputation as one of Britain's most vital contemporary folk acts. The album positions them firmly within the lineage of artists like Fairport Convention, Trees, and Comus who understood that engaging with tradition isn't nostalgic escapism, but a way of accessing older wisdoms about how to live in the world.

‘Burials’ press:

“...the musical battle between the fuzzy and the light makes Fuzzy Lights special.” MOJO ★★★★
“...a simmering, sinister undercurrent which often explodes with apocalyptic fervour.” SHINDIG ★★★★
“...subverting genre expectations and folk melodies.” FINANCIAL TIMES ★★★★
“Way beyond folk and folk in essence all at once, it's a record that’ll bring you much reward.” BACKSEATMAFIA - 8.3/10
“a genuine delight....a stirring and unsettling listen, goosebumps adding to the pleasure of timeless music played well, with perfect precision. Don’t leave it another eight years, eh?” FOLK RADIO
“...re-inventing the folk-rock playbook and dragging it screaming through an array of influences...Fuzzy Lights’ most unique, reflective and ambitious record to date” FOR THE RABBITS

Tell me something that makes a difference’ demands Gaia Weiss in Tenashee’s debut single. Something that immerses crisp melody into stodgy bass, collides warm dub with icy sound design, all the while slowly expanding like a supernova. ‘Tell me something’ takes the sounds and styles of the past and places them in a gravity-free future, while evoking an ethereal and precise atmosphere.
Gaia Weiss is an actress - not a singer by trade - and summons Charlotte Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot to deliver the spoken words as a fractured monologue, guiding us through splintered visions, and detuned chord progressions, in pursuit of the seemingly unattainable; ‘something that can make a difference’.
With this six-chapter journey on the newborn Street Cinema label, Tenashee (DJ Tennis and Ashee, Manfredi Romano and Joseph Ashworth) have crafted and refined - like two artisans from another era - a unique creation: a creature that reconnects electronic music with complexity and richness, fully aware of hyper-contemporaneity, yet capable of resisting surrender to it.
“Blink To Check It’s Real” featuring artist Campbell King - poet and beautiful soul - immediately immerses us in an electronic reality check, with 90s-inspired tweaking and glitching, all woven together with a poem from Campbell that contrasts the dizzying intensity of lust and connection with the comfort of being able to ‘loosen their grip’ and ‘make it safe.’
In ‘I Can See Now,’ Aurelia Ray (the stage name of pop-music-writing powerhouse Caitlin Stubbs) evokes a sense of serenity, pure love, and trust within a refined, spacious piece of minimalist electronica. “Blindsided” is a journey through pure, airy abstraction, a dance floor companion to the glacial trip-hop instrumental “Cold Logic”.
Finally, in “Memories,” the last track in the setlist but actually the first song the duo worked on, conceived and developed five years ago in 2020, the voice of Chinese German artist Mona Yim transports us to a place that is both emotionally introspective and intense, balancing on the edge between desire and reality.
“You should know where I go when I dream,” she states.
Over the course of five years, through exchanges, writing sessions, and fine-tuning in Paris, London, Saint Martin, and Ibiza, the world evolved, but Tenashee’s musical mission remained unchanged. The mini-album reflects the musical backgrounds of its two creators, their unique sensitivity to the present, and their desire to challenge each other with sharp, emotional, yet weightless styles and sounds. It is no longer just DJ Tennis; the successful DJ touring worldwide, organising events, and founding influential labels like Life & Death; nor only Joseph Ashworth with his scientific approach and creativity as a
producer and writer in the competitive world of pop; nor Ashee, with his releases on Circoloco and Aus Music. No, Tenashee is something more.
It is a duet searching for a thread that connects electronic music—past, present, and future—through experimentation, craft, and artistry. The moment has truly arrived for Tenashee to ‘tell us something.’

The word "amateur" originates from the Latin word "amator," meaning "lover" or "admirer". This Latin term is derived from "amare," which means "to love". The French adopted "amateur" from Latin, and the English then borrowed it from French, initially retaining the sense of someone who loves or is devoted to something. Over time, the English usage of "amateur" also developed a meaning related to a lack of professional skill or experience. How did a word derived from love become a slur? Is love really so defenseless? They say love conquers all, but in reality isn’t love quite ridiculous? It has no intention, no motive, no agenda. How could it possibly prevail? It can’t be bought or sold, or so they say.Its mere existence can't be proven or even measured. What an impossible thing. Trying and failing, time and time again, no wonder cynicism always seems to win. I see “amateurism” as a delighted, even foolish, protest. Protest against everything. Of what’s expected of someone, or expected of someone to desire or strive for. To be elite, to be expert, to be professional, to be a master, to excel and succeed. Where’s the joy in that? I just want to have fun. I want to want. I want to love. And keep doing it, forever. I want to have fun, even when it’s tiring and sometimes even heaven is boring as hell. I want to be bad. I want to do my own thing. “I vant to be alone”. I want to be someone so dedicated to their passion that it starts to seem like there’s something wrong with them. All the way. We can take it all the way, and never get it back. ” - Molly Nilsson Amateur is the 12th studio album by Molly Nilsson. Deep in the teeth of a career that threatens to tip into something resembling a “legacy,” Molly Nilsson celebrates with an album recorded instinctively, quickly and bursting with so many moments of emotional brilliance and clarity it may be her greatest yet. Hers has been a career spent reaching out, perennially powerful in her earnestness, a warrior ridiculously defenceless and armed with a glittering sincerity. Shearing herself of the machinations of the music industry, recording at home, writing direct to the heart. Amateur is a jubilee for losers. A treatise in 13 songs, Amateur states clearly that we should live our life with eternal curiosity, offers us an open hand of comradeship out of the rat race. The songs on the album are both some of the most personal of Nilsson’s career and the most anthemic. First single How Much Is The World asks us to re-evaluate value in the face of a Neo-liberal system squeezing the life out of our loves. Pulsing opener Die Cry Lie satirises the commercialisation of emotion in the form of a shout-along diss-track. With a pounding rhythm track held down by gorgeous chord changes, heartbreaker Valhalla carries the torch for the main themes of the album: never growing up, making mistakes with kindness, moving on. When the drums crash in on the line “It’s going to get better now, you’ll see, going to be much better off without me” there is a world of feeling swirling about in the vocal delivery. One reading of the track might be that it’s a break up song but the subtext is classic Molly Nilsson: by living truthfully, making mistakes, we’re active agents against the myriad oppressions of the world. All The Way takes the theme for a run into the eternal sunset. It’s a manifesto for living fully. “Take it all the way, and never get it back” - it’s the process that’s the important point. The journey not the destination. Big Life, follows on like a part 2: An ode not only to Molly Nilsson’s career of endless gigs, endless connections with people, it’s a massive ode for following your dreams, doing it yourself. Closer The Bitter End is a powerful anthem for friendship, another definition of love infused in Nilsson’s work, A beautifully poignant ode to comradeship til the end, it seems to be the songwriter approaching aging, approaching life’s inevitability with the same vigour and earnestness, the same love of life she enjoyed at the onset of her career. There are moments on Amateur shrouded in reverb, slightly out of focus, forcing the listener to step deeper into the Mollyverse.. Nilsson’s open-armed beseeching to the world permeates every beat, every chord. These are songs exploding with life: the chunky, aggressive bassline on the punker Get A Life can’t hide its massive, catchy chorus. The sweeping Swedish Nightmare might be a tongue-in-cheek self-reference, but at its heart it’s a song about the duality of living life large, what is a dream, what is a nightmare? Molly Nilsson says you can’t have one without the other, and why would you want to? Here’s to making mistakes.

Denmarks leading outlet for fresh, forward forward-thinking jazz, April Records, proudly presents the debut release from award award-winning Danish vibraphonist Viktoria Sondergaard. With wide ranging influences from jazz, chamber music, cabaret, pop, rap and SukumaSukuma-inspired grooves, as well as the hymns and melodies of the Danish Hojskolesangbog traditional/folk songbook, the music is grounded in collective expression and responsibility. The album s bold, boundary boundary-pushing sound was built on a strong sense of musical community, as well as Sondergaard s desire to integrate spoken word and lyrics into her practice to convey her thoughts and feelings on the world around her on a deeper, more personal level. Composing with her four collaborators in mind, Viktoria imagined her quintet playing each note as she composed, making the music inseparable from their presence. The album integrates spoken word, rap, singing, screaming, and whispering - a shared sonic tapestry that expresses joy, wonder, questioning and celebration. It s a band built on inspiration, joy, dreams and love, Viktoria says. For me, one of the most beautiful things in art is that we have a platform to say something about the society and world around us. This album is an attempt to do just this. this." Balancing warmth and intimacy with tension and exploration, the music weaves rich instrumental textures and spacious soundscapes with intricate vocal arrangements - intertwining voices that move between comforting folk folk-like harmonies and angular, avant avant-garde expression. The quartet s deep listening and intuitive interplay are evident throughout, shifting fluidly from open, exploratory passages to tightly locked grooves. The result is a sound that feels both grounded and searching: a sonic conversation inviting the listener into a space of vulnerability, curiosity, and connection. With a sparkling tone, emotive improvisation and refined control over her instrument Viktoria is recognised as a fearless explorer and bold musical voice. A recipient of the Aarhus Jazz Talent Prize, Tivoli Jazz Prize and the 2025 Carl Prize Honorary Award presented by Marilyn Mazur, she balances adventurous writing and collective invention with melodic immediacy and emotional power.

Repress of ‘Glow On’, the 2021 Grammy nominated third studio album from Baltimore hardcore punk quintet Turnstile. Co-produced by the band themselves along with hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo, and featuring the guest vocals of Blood Orange.



Recorded with producer Mike Elizondo and co-produced by the band’s Brendan Yates, GLOW ON follows TURNSTILE’s 2018 breakthrough album TIME & SPACE, which saw the Baltimore band charting new ground for hardcore, expanding stylistic boundaries and celebrating new possibilities.



With GLOW ON that utopic vision is fully realized; 15 tracks devoid of borders, boundaries, or entry obstacles, only abundant imagination, heart, and grooves plucked from all corners of the musical spectrum. GLOW ON includes the singles “HOLIDAY,” “MYSTERY,” “NO SURPRISE,” and “T.L.C. (TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION) from TURNSTILE’s recent TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION EP. GLOW ON also includes guest features from Blood Orange on “ALIEN LOVE CALL,” “LONELY DEZIRES,” with additional vocal contributions on “ENDLESS.”



“TURNSTILE has the ability to lure even the most poptimistic listener with spectacular hooks,” affirmed NPR remarking on the band’s single “HOLIDAY,” while The FADER named the track one of the 20 Best Rock Songs Right Now. Stereogum declared, “If you’re gonna go big, you might as well go gigantic, and with ‘MYSTERY’ TURNSTILE sound like they’re about to be huge.”



Bringing superhuman energy to the stage, TURNSTILE are scheduled to perform a string of sold-out headline shows this summer in the US, followed by appearances at next year at Spain’s Primavera Sound on 6/5, France’s Hellfest on 6/23, and the UK’s Outbreak Festival on 6/24.



Always more appeal than demand, more liberation than limitation, TURNSTILE extended their hand in 2018 with TIME & SPACE. Recorded with producer Will Yip, TIME & SPACE marked Turnstile’s Roadrunner Records debut and saw the band exploding the most outsized tropes of hardcore with tremendous heart. The album earned “Best of 2018” honors from Kerrang!, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, Billboard and more, with GQ naming TIME & SPACE one of “The Best Albums That Shaped the 2010s.”



Comprised of Brendan Yates (Vocals), Franz Lyons (Bass/Vocals), Brady Ebert (Guitars), Pat McCrory (Guitars), and Daniel Fang (Drums), TURNSTILE’s brand of youth-minded, youth-driven hardcore punk is intent on breaking down barriers, sonically and ideologically.