We’re only a couple of weeks away from the release of TUKAN‘s upcoming album Human Drift, and the Belgian quartet had already shared the riveting and pulsating ‘Pluck’ and the radiant and energized ‘Roda’. As if weren’t excited enough for this release, they are teasing the album again with a new single called ‘Blinker’. An incessantly danceable synths and drums track, the textures on ‘Blinker’ are inspired by sampling. Listen to it below and grab the album when it drops on January 24th through Magma.
2025 is starting on a high with Song of the Earth, the newly announced collaborative album from producer, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter David Longstreth and Berlin-based experimental ensemble s t a r g a z e. A song cycle for orchestra and voices performed by Longstreth with his band Dirty Projectors – Felicia Douglass, Maia Friedman, Olga Bell – and s t a r g a z e, and conducted by André de Ridder, Song of the Earth also features a stellar cast of guest contributors including Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie), Steve Lacy, Patrick Shiroishi, Anastasia Coope, Tim Bernardes, Ayoni, Portraits of Tracy, and the author David Wallace-Wells.
The first draft of Song of the Earth was written by Longstreth over the course of six “manic” weeks for a commission arranged by s t a r g a z e, in a period where he had to coordinate the pandemic madness, new fatherhood and writing for a large ensemble for the first time. Longstreth comments:
“The need for this music arose in a few days in Fall of 2020, when T was pregnant with our daughter. The fires in California were insane, as they are right now. We got on an empty flight to Juneau. It was the middle of the pandemic; no one was flying. The irony of escaping the fires by burning more carbon.”
According to him, Song of the Earth “is not a ‘climate change opera” but he wanted to “find something beyond sadness: beauty spiked with damage. Acknowledgement flecked with hope, irony, humour, rage.”
Song of the Earth arrives on April 4th through Transgressive Records (UK) and Nonesuch/New Amsterdam Records and we can already get a first marvellous taste from it with album track ‘Uninhabitable Earth, Paragraph One’, taken from the opening paragraph of Wallace-Wells’ 2019 bestseller The Uninhabitable Earth. The single comes with an accompanying lyric video featuring drone footage of Lake Tulare in California, which dried up in the 1880s from agricultural irrigation but has reappeared during periods of wet weather. The video was shot by Jake Longstreth and you can watch it below.
Astrobal‘s third solo album, L’uomo e la natura (Man and Nature), is nearing its release date on February 7th through Karaoke Kalk. On the run up to it, Emmanuel Mario, the French drummer, composer and producer behind the project, has let loose two singles, ‘Miami 2064’ and ‘L’abeille poupre’, and now he’s teasing the album again with a third cut called ‘Una melodia, i miei ricordi’. The single is the first of two title tracks from Astrobal’s upcoming L’uomo e la natura. Take a listen below.
Right in time for the incoming festivities, Maurice Louca has gifted us with a buoyant banger. The immeasurably talented and adventurous composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer unleashed yesterday a brand new single called ‘El Gawhara’. Uplifting, ebullient and kaleidoscopic, ‘El Gawhara’ features Tarek Elshbah on drums, Ayman Asfour on violin, Rosa Brunello on bass and Louca himself on microtonal guitar. An end of year treat, behold!
Last month, Australian-born, Berlin-based drummer and percussionist Eilis Frawley announced the release of Fall Forward, her debut album, and alongside the news she had shared the title track as the first single. Now, and ahead of the album’s release on March 7th through Sinnbus, Frawley has dropped a second single called ‘Be A Lady’, which offers a subtle yet impactful commentary on outdated and sexist language. ‘Be A Lady’ features backing vocals by Kat Frankie and you can listen to it below.
Astrobal
Last month, Australian-born, Berlin-based drummer and percussionist 
