Category Archives: Blog

Cloud Management announce second album »V.A.«

20 September 2023

Photo: Phuong Dan

Following last year’s self-titled debut album, Cloud Management return for their second excursion into the realms of percussive and immersive kraut dub, with a new album entitled »V.A.« arriving in November. The upcoming record saw the Hamburg trio of Thomas Korf, Sebastian Kokus and Ulf Schütte collaborate with Peaking Lights’ Aaron Coyes and also enlist the help of Leipzig-based Canadian producer No UFO’s, Canada’s Seekers International, and Kenyan multi-disciplinary artist Coco Em to rework some tracks. As a truly collaborative record, Cloud Management chose its title as a way of honouring and giving full creative licence to the various artists involved.

»V.A.« is set for release on November 10th through Altin Village & Mine but the band has already let loose the groovy and entrancing ‘PST’ featuring Aaron Coyes, as well the Seekers International version. Listen to both below.


Patrick Shiroishi to release new solo album, I Was Too Young To Hear Silence, in November

15 September 2023

Photo: Vincent Guilbert

There’s wonderful news from Patrick Shiroishi who has announced the release of a new solo album. Entitled I Was Too Young To Hear Silence, it follows Hidemi, which was one of our 15 Album Picks of 2021, and arrives on November 10th through American Dreams. For his upcoming album, the Los Angeles-based saxophonist and composer explored Japanese free improvised, solo saxophone records. “There’s this one I found by Masayoshi Urabe, he recorded this fifty-minute or hour-long solo saxophone thing. I downloaded it, and I was skipping through it to see what it was like, and every time I clicked, it was just nothing. It was silence. And I was like…did I download the wrong thing? And then, eventually, I had time to sit and listen to it. And that really opened things up.”

An album of free improvised solo saxophone, I Was Too Young To Hear Silence was recorded in a reverberant space in a single take, allowing for the sax and silence to collude. Speaking about it, Shiroishi mentions Ma, the Japanese concept of space or negative space. “The title [I was too young to hear silence] kind of refers to when I was younger…I would fill all the space with as many notes and as loud of volume as I could,” Shiroishi explained. “Not saying that there’s any wrong way to play, but for me, after a while, I was confused with what I was trying to say.”

Shiroishi has unveiled the album’s gripping lead single, “how will we get back to life again?”, along with a music video by Nancy Kwon. Here it is.

 

Matmos announce 14th studio album, Return To Archive, and share lead single ‘Mud-Dauber Wasp’

13 September 2023

Matmos, the veteran experimental duo of M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, have always created music in unconventional ways, using the most unusual sources and approaches since their bonding in life and music in 1997. The pair compose using anything from washing machines and varied surgical procedures to human skulls and rat cages, and a plethora of other odd things which they manipulate and often compliment with instrumentation.

Last week they’ve announced their 14th studio album, Return To Archive, slated for a digital release on November 3rd through Smithsonian Folkways, and in physical formats later in 2024. An invite from Folkways Records to create new material to commemorate their 75th anniversary led to the album. Schmidt and Daniel were given access to a huge archive comprising hundreds of LPs, and in keeping with their approach to making music, they crafted a record exclusively from the “non-musical” recordings, which were originally published by Folkways Records in the mid-20th century. As Daniel writes in the liner notes accompanying the album:

“Because we were not interested in reworking the music of other people (having just done that in our immediately preceding album, Regards/Ukłony dla Bogusław Schaeffer, on which we built new music out of elements from the Polish electro-acoustic composer), for this project we decided that we would rather focus exclusively upon the nature and science recordings within the label’s catalog and would make music only by sampling those sources without adding any new sounds of our own. We hoped to activate the rich musical potential within the hoots, gurgles, thunks, zaps, howls, drips, bangs, and zings that haunt classic early Folkways LPs from the The Sounds of the Office (1964) to Sounds of Medicine (1955) to The Science of Sound (1958). From cable cars on land to bottlenose dolphins underwater, from the quietest gurgling of gastro intestinal interiors to the wildest squalls of junkyard landscapes and the howling ionosphere above the clouds, an entire sonic universe lay hidden in the back alleys of this back catalog.”

The album news came paired with the lead single, ‘Mud-Dauber Wasp’, which saw them use a single sound source lifted from Albro T. Gaul’s 1960 Folkways LP Sounds of Insects. Schmidt has made a video for it and you can watch it below.

Le Guess Who? reveals the complete 2023 line-up, including The Necks, Brìghde Chaimbeul, ESG, Bala Desejo, Lost Girls, Ndox Electrique and new programmes hosted by AMPFEMININE, re:ni and Cami Layé Okún

12 September 2023

Less than two months to go before Le Guess Who? returns on 9-12th November, following their superb sell-out 2022 edition, the organizers announced today the full festival programme, attesting to their exceptional sonic tailoring. With boundary-pushing new additions including the likes of The Necks, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Bala Desejo, Lost Girls, as well as new programmes hosted by AMPFEMININE, re:ni and Cami Layé Okún, the one-of-a-kind festival shows it never ceases to stroll the path of boldness, diversity and adventure, and is again bound to make Utrecht burst into life for a triumphant celebration of music.

The Dutch festival had previously announced programmes curated by Stereolab, Heba Kadry, Nala Sinephro and Slauson Malone 1, as well as three special projects and the initial general line-up with Tom Skinner, Colleen, Bitchin Bajas, Holy Tongue, Baskot Lel Baltageyya, black midi and Nok Cultural Ensemble among the many acts set to play.

Newly announced today is Brazilian quartet Bala Desejo bringing their high energy performance to Le Guess Who? with their vibrant and effervescent mix of MPB, reggae, chula, salsa, rock and frevo. One of the bands at the helm of Brazil’s new musical generation, their 2022 debut album, Sim Sim Sim, was awarded the Latin Grammy. With an outstanding double LP, Travel, released earlier this year, the improvisatory excursions of Australian cult trio The Necks will also grace one of the many idyllic stages at the festival, as will South Bronx influential no wave act ESG, sure to keep the dancefloor rocking in what promises to be a special performance marking their last European show. There’s also the hypnotic Celtic melodies of Scottish smallpipes innovative player Brìghde Chaimbeul, whose music is rooted in her language and culture but expands beyond genre, and who earlier this year released a striking collaborative album with Colin Stetson. Also just announced and joining her is Alan Sparhawk (of Low), now performing solo following the passing of his musical and life partner Mimi Parker last November. New York City singer-songwriter Joanna Sternberg crafts songs that tug at the heartstrings, and she will bring her arresting and acclaimed new album, I’ve Got Me, which saw her write every song and play all instruments on it.

Also amongst the final wave of names newly added to the general line-up is the electronic and ritualistic avant rock of Ndox Electrique, the project of François R. Cambuzat and Gianna Greco, promoting their debut album, Tëd Ak Mame Coumba Lamba Ak Mame Coumba Mbang, on the heels of its release, and Lost Girls, the Norwegian duo of Jenny Hval (LGW19 curator) and Håvard Volden who also have a new album, Selvutsletter, dropping in October. Formed in Zambia in the 1970s, Zamrock pioneers W.I.T.C.H., which is an acronym for WE INTEND TO CAUSE HAVOC, are back to perform their first new album in nearly four decades, alongside Dutch musicians Jacco Gardner and Nic Mauskoviç.

Setting the stage for rare performances, Le Guess Who? will also host the premiere of a special and surprising collaboration between Berlin-based Italian composer Caterina Barbieri and Manchester-born electronic duo Space Afrika, with the visual artistry of Marcel Weber aka MFO.

Ustad Noor Bakhsh, who hails from Pakistan’s Balochistan region, will also perform at Le Guess Who? as part of Hidden Musics, the programme that celebrates musical traditions and artists from secluded regions of the world. A master of the Balochi benju, a unique stringed instrument with keys, Ustad Noor Bakhsh will bring his transcending compositions to the festival.

Another fresh addition includes a programme presented by Rotterdam-based DJ collective AMPFEMININE who aim to create opportunities for women and non-binary DJs and performers. They’ll host an evening with the likes of Argentinian DJ and producer based in Mexico City Tayhana, who’s been firing up dancefloors in South and Central-America, Rotterdam-based DJ and multidisciplinary designer Soft Break, DJ and producer Coffintexts and Amsterdam based South African multi-disciplinary artist DIORA.

In addition to performing at the festival, Birmingham-born¸ South London based artist re:ni will also host her programme including UK rising star DJ SHERELLE, British musician, composer, producer, and label-head Lee Gamble with his blend of experimental, techno, and jungle music and a new album out next month, and Berlin-based Detroit legend DJ Stingray 313, a major force in the world of electro and techno for more than two decades, who isn’t going to let anyone stand still.

An inveterate cratedigger and radio host, Cuban selector Cami Layé Okún will also host an ‘Insolar Night’ at Le Guess Who?, playing her very own vinyl collection handpicked all over the world and spanning all sort of funky, tribal and tropical rhythms. She has also invited El Volcán and Roger Damawuzan, a legend of Togolese funk music.

U? is joining forces with Le Guess Who? again with a cluster of freely accessible performances from Netherlands-based artists, like six-piece psychedelic outfit Nusantara Beat, bringing their take on traditional Indonesian music, post-punk/noise pop band Burning Neighbours, post-punk outfit Library Card, the exotic and colourful sounds of Arp Frique & Family and much more.


These and a dizzying array of unmissable wonders await in Utrecht from 9-12th November. A very limited number of extra tickets for Friday and Saturday, as well as Night Tickets for re:ni presents (Saturday 11 November at WAS.) and AMPFEMININE presents (Saturday 11 November at BASIS), will go on sale this Friday 15th September, at 11am CEST. In the meantime, for full details of the line-up and tickets, visit leguesswho.com.

John Ghost share second single, ‘The Quantities’, off forthcoming record

08 September 2023

John Ghost have a new album on the way, Thin Air . Mirror Land, the follow-up to 2019’s Airships Are Organisms, which was one of our Album Picks of the Year. The extraordinary Ghent based instrumental sextet had already enticed us with ‘The Dimmed’ and today they are sharing the epic opening track ‘The Quantities’, further attesting to their musical prowess and inventiveness. The new single “is a sonic journey that’ll take you from the heart of the Middle East, with a spicy ‘Dune’ vibe, to a futuristic, mechanical wonderland that’s bursting with bombastic vibes”, as the press release describes. “In this sonic whirlwind, you’ll catch ethereal melodies dancing freely amidst the relentless, never-ending machine.”

Grab Thin Air . Mirror Land when it’s out on October 6th through Sdban Records and right now listen to ‘The Quantities’.

Listen to corto.alto’s new single ‘Latency’; debut album out next month

07 September 2023

As if we weren’t excited enough for the upcoming corto.alto‘s debut album Bad With Names, the Glaswegian prodigious multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer shared today a third single from it called ‘Latency’. Featuring James Copus, ‘Latency’ follows previously released tracks ‘Bye’ and ‘Slope’ and the single is offered with a video recorded live at Strange Field in Glasgow. Watch it below and watch out for the release of Bad With Names on October 6th through New Soil x Bridge The Gap.