Category Archives: Blog

John Ghost tease new album with first single ‘The Dimmed’

23 June 2023

Photo: Joris Jeursen

John Ghost‘s Airships Are Organisms, released in 2019, made it our Album Picks of the Year then and remains a favourite album. So we’re thrilled to know the extraordinary Ghent based instrumental sextet are following it up with a new full-length album titled Thin Air . Mirror Land. John Ghost never cease to stroll the path of inventiveness and adventure, and the upcoming Thin Air . Mirror Land has “a slightly more sombre tone, focussing on a broader range of instruments and an emphasis on percussive elements”, as the press release describes. The album “is a musical urge for introspection in a chaotic reality, and a longing to reconnect with a natural environment.”

As with their previous record, the band enlisted Jørgen Træen (Jaga Jazzist, Kaizers Orchestra, Hubro, Sondre Lerche) to handle production duties.  Guitarist and composer Jo De Geest, who helms the outfit, cites a spectrum of influences such as Hans Zimmer, György Ligeti, Magma, The Residents, Disasterpeace, James Holden & The Animal Spirits, Do Make Say Think, William Basinski, and Jóhann Jóhannsson.  Both the album and the song titles are inspired by Edvard Munch’s painting “The Storm” (1893).

Thin Air . Mirror Land arrives on October 6th through Sdban Records but John Ghost are already teasing it with ‘The Dimmed’. If the single is is anything to go by, we just can’t for October to come.

Listen to Penguin Cafe’s new single ‘Find Your Feet’

20 June 2023

Photo: Alex Kazobolis

Penguin Cafe‘s highly anticipated new album, Rain Before Seven…, is nearing its release date on July 7th through Erased Tapes. After enticing us with two singles, ‘Second Variety’ and ‘In Re Budd’, the ensemble of Arthur Jeffes have shared another track from the album, the radiant and joyful ‘Find Your Feet’. Speaking about the track, Jeffes had this to say:

“This track started life as a little groove on piano and ukulele – all based on reversing shapes across the bar. It’s a trick often used in South American music, hence the slightly caribbean/South American vibe. The structure does end up being quite minimalist and then it’s just a question of the other elements having fun over the top…”

Listen to ‘Find Your Feet’ below.

Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers return with new album Somanti and share title track

20 June 2023

The wildly creative partnership between Haitian six-piece Chouk Bwa and Belgian production duo The Ångströmers started when they met in 2016 and went on to perform together, merging Afro-Caribbean voodoo polyrhythms with bass-weight dub electronics. Following their 2020 debut album Vodou Alé, Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers are back with a new record. Entitled Somanti, the album came about after they reunited in May 2022 for an extensive European tour, punctuated by “near-constant rehearsals, discussions, experiments, intercultural dialogue and meticulous musical negotiations”, as the press release describes. Frederic Alstadt of The Ångströmers comments:

“Being reunited again meant that we played with those tracks, we arranged them in many ways, and they became something totally different. We had toured for about two months and we set up three days of recording sessions at a studio in Brussels, and basically we recorded everything in one day. There was one day of set-up, one day of recording and one day of fine tuning. We were playing live in the studio, and then we spent about two weeks producing it. It was done pretty fast, actually. It really came from the live energy.”

Described as an album of ritual, on Somanti most of the tracks are based on ceremonial music, with the lyrics drawn from proverbs. Chouk Bwa’s manager Michael Wolteche elaborates:

“In Vodou, all of the rites have different rhythms. We could choose the ones that would most please Western ears, but we will not do that, we keep all of the different aspects. This is our way to respect a very complex, subtle culture. It is not just entertainment music. It is meant to bring the people to trance, but for people in Europe or the US, to bring a spiritual connection to the party.”

Somanti is set for release on October 6th through Bongo Joe Records and ahead of it they have let loose the entrancing and intoxicating title track.

Matthew Halsall set to release new album, An Ever Changing View; shares lead single ‘Water Street’

16 June 2023

With an ambitious 15-year career spanning 8 studio albums, various collaborations and an incredible record label, Matthew Halsall has firmly established himself as a major force on the UK jazz scene. The gifted trumpeter, composer, bandleader and producer crafts unique spellbinding compositons blending jazz, electronica, global and spiritual jazz influences. He is back with his much anticipated ninth album, An Ever Changing View, releasing on September 8th through his own Gondwana Records. Described as his most experimental yet, the forthcoming album was written whilst Halsall stayed in both a architect’s house with stunning sea views in north Wales and a striking modernist house in Bridlington, in the northeast of England, which he likens to a “landscape painting” allowing him to encapsulate “the feeling of openness and escapism”.

In the studio, Halsall “would almost be like a DJ at points, bringing different elements in and out for people to play on top of”, as he puts it himself. “It was a new and fun way of working, and everyone beautifully adapted to that process.”

An Ever Changing View is both uplifting and balmy. Halsall comments:

“Music can elevate and inspire us, or soothe and protect us. It’s a quality that I hear in spiritual jazz, ambient music or just in the sound of the sea and the wind in the trees. I wanted that quality to be part of the tapestry I created for this album.”

September seems like a long way away but we can already hear the magical and moving lead single ‘Water Street’. It comes with an accompanying video directed by Matthew Halsall, Daniel Halsall and Rich Williams, and you can watch it below.

Matana Roberts announces new Coin Coin instalment, Chapter Five: In the garden…

15 June 2023

Photo: Anna Niedermeier

Extraordinary alto saxophonist, composer, improviser and sound experimentalist Matana Roberts is back with a new instalment in their long running and acclaimed experimental project Coin Coin. They have announced Chapter Five: In the garden…, marking the project’s fifth instalment, which counts already four releases, 2011’s Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres, 2013’s Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile, 2015’s Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee and 2019’s Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis.

To bring Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… to life, Roberts enlisted an outstanding ensemble including bass clarinettist Stuart Bogie, vocalist/actor Gitanjali Jain, alto saxophonist Darius Jones, alto clarinettist Matt Lavelle, percussionists Mike Pride and Ryan Sawyer, violinist Mazz Swift and pianist Cory Smythe and Kyp Malone (TV On The Radio, Bent Arcana) took over the production duties.

The album’s theme, a reaction to the current abortion laws in the US, is laid out sonically with elements of jazz, avant-garde composition, folk and spoken word. Roberts tells the story of a woman who dies from an illegal abortion. “I wanted to talk about this issue, but in a way where she gets some sense of liberation,” Roberts explained, offering some further insight into the album in their accompanying liner notes essay:

“There is something quite rancid going on in America right now, more so than any time I have seen… a growing cohort of ghoul-like humans who seem to think that your body does not belong to you. We have seen some of this before, we knew it was wrong, and we eradicated some of the issues. It wasn’t perfect how we did it, but we did it. And yet, like a never-ending train wreck, here we are again. The lack of access to safe and legal abortion services disproportionately affects marginalized and low-income communities, who often lack the resources and support to obtain safe reproductive health care. Reproductive healthcare includes abortion….

This over-focus and policing of ovaried bodies are getting in the way of the number one killer of American children today: firearms. This bounce around being dangerously shouted from conservative rooftops about trans bodies is just an extension of this reproductive rights fight.”

Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is set for release on September 29th through Constellation Records and ahead of it they are giving us a phenomenal taster of it with the opening 10 minutes of the album featuring the three-song suite “we said” / “different rings” / “unbenkownst”. Here it is.

Emergence Collective to release new album, Fly Tower, later this month

13 June 2023

Live performance of Fly Tower

Emergence Collective is a supergroup of sorts comprised of some of the most masterful improvisers out of Sheffield and the North of England. They bring a diverse sonic palette and sensibility to their music that reflects their musical backgrounds in folk, jazz, experimental, early and contemporary classical music. With a revolving cast of up to fifteen musicians, their music is completely improvised and partly informed by where they play, “with just the starting key a deciding factor”, as the press release explains, “and little to no amplification is used in performances to preserve the natural sound of the instruments”, both ancient and modern.

Emergence Collective have announced the release of their new album, Fly Tower, captured live at the Abbeydale Picturehouse Fly Tower in Sheffield, a reverberant space, which is something they take into consideration when playing. Fly Tower will see the light of day on June 30th through Redundant Span Records and ahead of it they have shared the enthralling, gorgeous, mysterious and mesmerizing lead track, ‘S7 1FS-3’.  Press play and immerse yourself in the realm of their magic.