Photo: Eslam Abd El Salam
Last month we heard and loved the otherworldly and entrancing ‘Khafif Khafif’, the first single taken from Nancy Mounir‘s debut album Nozhet El Nofous (“Promenade of the Souls”). Ahead of the album’s release on June 3rd through Simsara Records, the talented and versatile multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and composer has shared a new poignant and eerie cut called ‘Ana Bas Saktalak’ featuring Fatma Serry. Take a listen below.
Recently signed to XXIM Records, Manchester’s unique and quirky jazz trio GoGo Penguin are back with a new EP, following their 2020’s eponymous album. Entitled Between Two Waves, it is their first album with new drummer, Jon Scott, and was recorded at Real World Studios at the tail end of 2021. To get us enticed, Gogo Penguin have shared a magnificent new single called ‘Badeep’. “With this track we were inspired by the idea of taking the listener on a journey”, the band explains. “‘Badeep’ starts and ends with the same simple synth pattern but through the journey you finally arrive somewhere which feels both familiar and alien at the same time.” Take a listen below.
Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist and composer Nailah Hunter is releasing a full-length album later this year and earlier this month she has shared a taste from it in the shape of new single ‘Forest Dark’. In Hunter’s own words, “Forest Dark is about lost love and quiet longing, calling forth the feeling of a full moon shining through the tallest trees in an ancient wood.”
The track was produced by Brogan Bentley and speaking about it, Hunter commented:
“It was a new and exhilarating process working closely with producer Brogan Bentley on this track. He sampled and resynthesized the harp parts I wrote for the piece to create a new sound world, and the addition of Max Kaplan’s tenor sax added another layer of richness and soul.”
Bentley also had this to say about their collaboration:
“Forest Dark: The last kiss of light from the golden hour as it descends below the treeline, exposing fleeting tones of deepest emerald green and crimson red woods. The ensuing cloak of nightfall worn by the many spirits of the forest as they sing and dance in rapture, playing strings of shadow and imagination, exciting mystery and reverence for lesser known paths as they reveal themselves with every new step taken through the dark.”
Listen to ‘Forest Dark’ below.
News from Belgian label Sdban Records always prick up our ears and with good reason. The most recent one comes from pyschedelic jazz collective Compro Oro, who have announced the release of their fifth album. Entitled Buy The Dip and slated for a September 2nd release, it follows 2020’s Simurg, their heavenly collaborative album with Murat Ertel, frontman and co-founder of Turkish psychedelic folk band BaBa ZuLa, and his singer partner Esma Ertel. Buy The Dip is reportedly “less ethno- and more techno-logy, both on a musical and conceptual level.”
Compro Oro have let loose the album’s first single, ‘Ben Hur’, which serves as a radiant and intoxicating taste of what they’ll be throwing at us. Take a listen now.
Later this month drummer José Medeles is releasing a tribute album to guitarist and DIY iconoclast John Fahey titled Railroad Cadences & Melancholic Anthems. A record of guitar and drum duets, Medeles collaborated with 3 of his favourite guitarists, M. Ward, Marisa Anderson, and Chris Funk, to bring to life 11 new compositions of “improvised rendezvous inspired and informed by [Fahey ‘s] looseness and rhythmic idiosyncrasies”, as the press release explains.
Railroad Cadences & Melancholic Anthems is out on May 20th through Jealous Butcher Records and Medeles has shared the utterly bewitching ‘Golden” featuring Chris Funk (Decemberists, Stephen Malkmus) as the album’s second single. “When you have that kind of freedom, I believe you transform into that,” Medeles commented about the track and improvisational approach. “It takes him a minute to get inside the music, and when he does, it’s absolutely so solid.”, he said about Funk’s collaboration.
‘Golden’ comes with a video directed and edited by Rachel Blumberg, featuring found footage from the Prelinger Archives. Watch it now.
As the trumpet player and singer of Brooklyn Bhangra outfit Red Baraat for over 10 years now, many will instantly recognize musician, educator and activist Sonny Singh on his new solo project. Under his own name, Sonny is set to release his debut solo album titled Chardi Kala, a record of uplifting Punjabi anthems and Sikh kirtan with lyrics from Gurbani (Sikh devotional poetry) and Sufi poetry mostly written in the 16th and 17th Centuries. “Musically, this project embodies the many spiritual, political, and aesthetic elements that have shaped me,” Sonny explained. “Every song has an original vibe to it, eclectic and unique, from a bolero-mariachi Sikh shabad on one track, to a qawwali song with a reggae bass line on another, then a bombastic Ghadar Party tribute in Punjabi and Spanish on yet another.”
Chardi Kala will see the light of day on May 13th and ahead of it Sonny has shared the jubilant lead single ‘Aisee Preet’, featuring a Sikh shabad (devotional poem) by Guru Arjan, the fifth of the ten Sikh Gurus. The single is offered with an accompanying video shot in Richmond Hill, Queens, which has a large Punjabi Sikh community. Speaking about it, Sonny commented:
“I hope this music and video will help bring more attention to the Sikh community in the US who have too often been ignored by mainstream media. As we Sikhs around the world celebrate Vaisakhi, I want to invite other communities to join us and get a glimpse of our spiritual and cultural practices, while also joining us in our struggles for dignity and justice.
The reality is our community usually only makes headlines in the United States in times of tragedy as victims of racist attacks and hate crimes. Part of our intention with this video, and my music in general, is to amplify the beauty, love, and strength in the Sikh community, who have dealt with so much oppressive trauma but remain in chardi kala – revolutionary eternal optimism.”
Shravya Kag directed, filmed, and edited the video for ‘Aisee Preet’. Watch it below.
