Formed in 2009, globetrotting Amsterdam collective Jungle by Night are a six-piece powerhouse comprising Bo Floor (trumpet), Ko Zandvliet (trombone, vocals), Jac van Exter (guitar), Pyke Pasman (organ and keyboards), Tienson Smeets (congas, djembe and percussion) and Sonny Groeneveld (drums). Famously called “the future of Afrobeat” by Femi and Seun Kuti, Jungle by Night have earned a reputation for firing, high-energy live shows that turn into dance parties, and that hasn’t changed in 2026.
The band has just announced their highly anticipated seventh studio album, Bar Dancing, dropping on February 5th through Rush Hour. Previously an instrumental band, the forthcoming album sees them incorporating vocals for the very first time. Spanning a wide spectrum of genres, on Bar Dancing they blend their signature bright horns and analogue dance grooves with resonant lyrics that reflect on digital burnout, disinformation and doomscrolling.
February seems like a long way away but they have already shared the album’s euphoric, galvanizing and infectious lead single, ‘Something About Something’. Speaking about the track, the band shares:
“It’s so sad that a lot of very bright people are working really hard to keep us addicted to our phones all the time. We know it’s bad for our health and wellbeing. No one is happy after spending hours on social media. It’s nearly impossible to stay away from it cause these companies are constantly adding new tricks and lay outs etcetera to keep you engaged. Of course there are interesting, funny and nice things to take in but the majority of what you see is also some kind of noise and doesn’t really add anything. It’s just ‘something about something’”
We’ll keep our ears peeled for more. Now listen to ‘Something About Something’.
We’re arriving a little late to Orson Claeys, but having now caught up with the Belgian pianist and composer’s music, it’s clear we should have been paying attention sooner. Claeys is gearing up to release his debut album, OTHELLO, a record that brings together his jazz foundations with hip-hop, R&B, urban culture and a host of influences that extend well beyond music.
The album title comes from Claeys’ full name, Orson Dwight Othello Claeys, but it also points towards one of the album’s central themes: identity. OTHELLO explores the different influences, environments and encounters that contribute to the formation of an artist, with Claeys approaching jazz as an open language rather than a fixed genre. Hip-hop plays a particularly important role throughout the record, alongside contemporary culture and ideas that sit outside traditional musical boundaries. This is also reflected in the album’s collaborations, which bring together musicians from different corners of the contemporary scene, including L.A. rapper IAMOMNI, Belgo-Brazilian vocalist Helena Casella, Belgian drummer and producer Lander Gyselinck, and oud player Akram Ben Romdhane. Outside the music itself, Claeys draws inspiration from the culture surrounding him, from the visual and communal energy of urban scenes to the discipline and mentality associated with boxing and basketball. These aren’t treated as separate reference points but as parts of the same creative environment.
OTHELLO is set to arrive on October 9th through Sdban Ultra, and Claeys has already let two tracks loose, ‘RODNEY’S DANCE’ and ‘WHAT A NIGHT’. ‘RODNEY’S DANCE’ is inspired by Claeys’ years spent skateboarding in his hometown of Ghent. Named after legendary skateboarder Rodney Mullen, the track is a reflection on the freedom, creativity and sense of belonging he found within the skate scene, and the connection he now sees between those experiences and jazz. He shares:
“Skateboarding gave me a sense of creativity, freedom, and belonging, and in ways helped shape the musician I am today. It has so many similarities to jazz that I only fully recognize now, years later. Both are communities that welcome anyone, regardless of where they come from or who they are, there’s value to anyone who takes part in them. That is also why I chose to continue my path in jazz rather than another genre. In many ways, it felt familiar. I had grown up skateboarding and spent nearly a decade immersed in that community, so the spirit of jazz already felt deeply connected to something I knew and understood.”
On ‘WHAT A NIGHT’, Claeys teams up with Los Angeles-based rapper IAMOMNI for a late-night ride through the streets of L.A. The track started life with a handful of unfinished chords written by indie soul singer Sevens, which Claeys picked up and developed into a full composition. After STUFF.’s Mix Monster Menno introduced him to IAMOMNI, the rapper’s distinctive flow became the final piece of the puzzle. Although the collaboration brings a strong hip-hop presence to the track, Claeys was keen to keep its foundations firmly in jazz, as he explains:
“My goal wasn’t to create a traditional hip-hop beat or a typical rap instrumental. I wanted the track to feel like a genuine jazz composition first and foremost, built around a classic jazz trio with an upright bass instead of a heavy electronic bass sound. The music had to stand on its own, even without vocals.”
The two singles offer an exhilarating introduction to Claeys’ forthcoming debut, and we can’t wait to hear the full thing. ‘WHAT A NIGHT’ comes with an accompanying video directed by Noah Dechamps. Check it out below and listen to ‘RODNEY’S DANCE’ straight after.
Following the buoyant and rhythm-led ‘Grazzie Ragazzi’, flautist, composer and producer Erica Tucceri has shared ‘Sun Daze’, the second single from her forthcoming debut album, Route 96, due out on November 27th through DeepMatter Records. A radiant and celestial track, ‘Sun Daze’ builds gradually around a rich, expanded horn section, with Tucceri on alto flute alongside the muted trumpet of Niran Dasika and tenor saxophone of Joshua Moshe. ‘Sun Daze’ also features Lewis Moody on keys and production, Ziggy Zeitgeist on drums, and percussionists Ray Pereira and Javier Fredes.
Tucceri describes the track:
“This tune captures the slinky feeling of your first sunny day for the season. When you put on your favourite summer outfit and feel the sun on your bare skin for the first time in months. When everyone is giving a little bit of spring time side eye, no ones in a rush and just happy to be outside connecting and basking in the suns glow.”
We love The Arch, the new album from composer and multi-instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe, which arrived last week through New Amsterdam Records in partnership with Figure 8 Recording. A sought-after collaborator, who has worked with the likes of André 3000, Yo-Yo Ma, Wes Anderson, Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran and Rhiannon Giddens, Watanabe has spent three decades honing his work with Japanese flutes and percussion, and bringing traditional Japanese music into conversation with jazz, improvisation and experimental music.
Created over the course of a year at Figure 8 as part of its Open Residency programme, The Arch saw Watanabe working closely with Grammy Award-winning producer William Brittelle and executive producer Shahzad Ismaily. Across its ten tracks, traditional Japanese instruments including shinobue and ryuteki flutes, taiko drums, narimono percussion and koto are placed alongside piano, synthesizers, saxophone and harp, all played by Watanabe.
The album came to life after a period of deep reflection for Watanabe, who turned fifty in 2025 and was also navigating the death of his mother. Looking back at his upbringing in St. Louis, his Japanese heritage, his years living and performing in Japan and his return to New York, he describes The Arch as a culmination of decades spent bringing these different musical and cultural experiences together into one singular vision.
Today, Watanabe has unveiled a wonderful visual companion for ‘Kumo No Ito (Spider’s Thread)’, one of the album’s most striking and propulsive pieces, featuring the voice of his partner Yurie Ito. Speaking about the track, he comments:
“My taiko are made by the Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten, an eighth-generation drum maker in Tokyo. The large ones are designed to be loud—a musician is drawn to sound the drum with all their energy and strength in order to be heard by the entire village. I love the idea that, with modern technology, we can juxtapose intense drumming with gentle koto, harp, shinobue, piano, and singing. The title of the piece is a reference to the short story by Akutagawa Ryunosuke titled the same. A story of paradise and hell, salvation, damnation, and enlightenment.”
The video also features a cameo from legendary dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov. Jon Fine directs. Watch it below.
Agbeko have a third album on the way, following their 2023 There Must Be Another Way. Entitled When the People Say, the upcoming record sees the Mancunian collective continue to draw from the rich lineage of Afrobeat as well as incorporating elements of Ethio-jazz, protest song and UK jazz into their expansive and highly energetic sound. Capturing the collective energy they are known for, on the new album Agbeko balance powerful grooves and soaring horns with songs that reflect on the world around us.
When the People Say is set for release on October 23rd through Birdwatcher Records and Agbeko first previewed it with the blistering ‘Know How’. Now they have shared a second single, ‘Work It All Out’ featuring Amber Kuti, and it’s another electrifying taste from the record. Turn up your speakers and listen to both tracks below.
Jan St. Werner, one half of German avant-garde electronic duo Mouse on Mars and an endlessly inventive artist, has announced a new solo album called Squares Will Fall. More than a decade in the making, the album brings together Werner’s love of experimentation, inventive sound design and collaboration, with contributions from Justin Vernon, Sufjan Stevens, Ben Lanz and John Colpitts, among others. Squares Will Fall originally began in 2012 as a 30-minute electronic composition, created for a friend’s 30th birthday, before continuing to change over the years. The piece later became the foundation for an improvisation between Werner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon during the sessions for Mouse on Mars’ Dimensional People at Vernon’s studio in Wisconsin. In 2021, Werner reworked the composition into a spatial installation for the Ural Industrial Biennial, where three separate layers of the piece were played through loudspeakers suspended from the ceiling that were continually moved around the space by performers, creating a different listening experience depending on where the audience was.
Werner completed the piece this year, creating its first stereo mix at Mouse on Mars’ Paraverse Studios with his Mouse on Mars partner Andi Toma, who also contributed bass to the final version. After more than a decade of transformations, Squares Will Fall is now being released as record “preserving the piece’s open, cut-up character while translating its spatial and performative origins into a form suitable for focused listening”, as the press release describes. It will see the light of day on November 13th through Thrill Jockey and coinciding with the album announcement, Werner has let loose an excerpt of the sublime and beguiling title track. Describing it, Werner says:
“A computer music free jazz rhapsody jumbled in a space capsule with Justin not really understanding how he got on board. Justin asks the computer. The computer replies with a drum solo.”
‘Squares Will Fall’ comes accompanied by a video made by Galina Nemtseva / Icon Film.
