Neil Cowley announces solo album, Battery Life, and shares new single ‘Ticker Tape’

14 January 2023

Celebrated and incredibly talented pianist and composer Neil Cowley is a true visionary. After dazzling us for more than a decade with his trio, Neil Cowley Trio, in 2019 he embarked on a solo career. Following a few EP releases, an album and a collaboration with Jacana People, he has announced the release of a new full-length album entitled Battery Life. Speaking about it, Cowley offered some insight:

“It is a record of abstract memories and stolen excerpts.
It is my perception of the past before the detail is filled in.
Blurred pictures, strange details, a feeling, a smell and above all the freedom to redefine the past at my whim. In an age where we are able to archive virtually any amount of life experience at the press of a button, it calls into question the value of a memory, both undetailed and detailed.”

Lucky for us, Cowley has let loose a sublime and striking new single called ‘Ticker Tape’. The track takes its title from the earliest electrical communications medium used for financial purposes. He explains:

“During the making of my album ‘Battery Life’ I mused on the various types of communication we use as modern day human beings and how quite often they lead to miscommunication, or at least serve as a poor second to traditional human contact.
Inevitably I cast my mind back to the medium of ticker tape, and how it operated as one of the earliest forms of passing on numerical information worldwide. I found myself asking myself whether there was any tangible difference in efficacy between that and what we use today.
This piece, with its 16th note rhythms and its random repetition of melody aims to communicate in a similar fashion, like a numerical tarantella to skip across the continents.”

Listen to ‘Ticker Tape’ now and keep an eye out for the release of Battery Life.

James Holden returns with fourth album, Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities

12 January 2023

Photo: Laura Lewis

Nearly six years on from the release of The Animal Spirits, electronic maverick James Holden is back with his fourth album. Entitled Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities, it arrives on March 31st through his own Border Community. “I wanted this to be my most open record, uncynical, naive, unguarded, the record teenage me wanted to make,” Holden said of the album. “I used to balance my clock-radio on a wardrobe to catch the faint pirate FM signals from the nearest city, dreaming of what raves would be like when I could finally escape and become a New Age traveller.”

Unlike the previous record that saw Holden assemble and perform for the first time accompanied by a full band, Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities is described as “more of a continuous sound collage, artfully juxtaposing audio worlds in his own inimitable manner”. Holden uses his own samples taken from recordings of his own performances on the modular synth, keyboard, organ, piano and even his childhood violin. The album also features guest contributions from members of the Animal Spirits live band, including drummer Tom Page, tabla-championing percussionist Camilo Tirado, multi-instrumentalist Marcus Hamblett and saxophonist Christopher Duffin.

Along with the album news, Holden has also shared lead single ‘Contains Multitudes’, a spellbinding and ecstatic track clocking at almost ten minute long . Speaking about it Holden comments:

“I’d been looking at John Stezaker’s collages, where things collide and it feels like it opens a window into them, thinking a lot about musical approaches to that idea, then the end part of this just appeared in my head as I listened to the loops of the beginning part. The two songs are opposite musics but also completely contained inside one another.”

Listen to ‘Contains Multitudes’ below.

Bandler Ching share final single ahead of debut album release

11 January 2023

2023 is off to an outstanding start with the imminent release of Bandler Ching‘s debut album, Coaxial. On the upcoming album, each of the four members continue to bring in their own influences and ideas, blending an array of genres, from contemporary jazz, electronics and hip-hop to noise and global beats, without stylistic constraints. Bandler Ching have dropped a final single, ‘Smooch’, ahead of the album’s release on January 27th through Sdban Ultra. It comes with a video, check it out now.

En Attendant Ana share video for new single ‘Same Old Story’ off upcoming album Principia

10 January 2023

Photo: Arno Muller

En Attendant Ana, the Parisian quintet of Margaux Bouchaudon, Camille Fréchou, Maxence Tomasso, Adrien Pollin and Vincent Hivert, have a new album on the way. Entitled Principia, the record arrives on February 24th through Trouble in Mind.

Following the title track, the band has shared a new single called ‘Same Old Story’ where they “explore new paths, making playful winks to bossa rhythms, mixing of genres and improvised music”, as the press release describes. The track is offered with an accompanying video directed by Ilhan Palayret and you can watch it below.

Sergio Díaz De Rojas announces details of new album and shares second single

06 January 2023

We’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of Sergio Díaz De Rojas‘ upcoming album since the gorgeous, delicate and warm first taste ‘Maracuyá / Barranco’ emerged in December. The Valencia based Peruvian pianist and composer has now unleashed details of the album. Entitled The Muerte en una tarde de verano, the record will see the light of day on March 10th via Nettwerk.

Sergio is also enticing us further with a new single, ‘Canción para Otto y Elsa’, a sublime and melancholic track filled with poignant beauty. The track is a tribute to his grandfather and his grandfather’s sister, who were accomplished pianists and composers, and from whom he first gained inspiration. He comments:

“Otto was my grandpa (from my mom’s side), and Elsa, his sister, my great-aunt. My grandpa only saw me play the piano once, during a classical music recital when I was around twelve years old. Elsa, on the other hand, is the person that guided me as a pianist and composer until the day I left Peru. Otto was a natural genius that played for diverse orchestras and bands, from salsa to jazz, and released various amazing records. My great-aunt is a talented multidisciplinary artist, classically-trained pianist, and the most inspiring teacher I have ever had. They have completely different styles, personalities, and life stories, but there is a piece that I know both of them love: La Comparsa by Ernesto Lecuona. I love it, too, and hope to learn how to play it one day. Until then, this is my gift to them.”

‘Canción para Otto y Elsa’ comes with an accompanying video directed by Tiago Almança and starring Miriam Serrano. Watch it below.

Watch Rozi Plain’s video for new single ‘Painted the Room’

05 January 2023

 

If you only listen to one song today, make it ‘Painted the Room’ by London based singer-songwriter Rozi Plain. A bewitching sonic monument to both heart and mind, ‘Painted the Room’ is the final single lifted from Prize, her upcoming fifth full-length album, which arrives on January 13th through Memphis Industries. Speaking about the track, Plain comments:

“I think this is a sort of a celebration song dedicated to scummy situations retreating – relief when you are able to have the clarity and freedom to just trot off! It changed so much from how it started and took a couple of hilarious and surprising-to-me new turns. Then we just deleted the guitar. Then I went to Danalogue‘s (from The Comet Is Coming and Soccer96) studio and he topped it up with some of his trade mark good ear good vibe!”

‘Painted the Room’ is offered with an accompanying video filmed by Ed Tucker at London’s Total Refreshment Centre. On the video, Plain and her friends – Kristian Craig Robinson, Alexis Blondel, Balkis Mbarek, Ed Tucker, Serafina Steer, Momoko Gill, Donna Thompson, Alabaster Deplume, Conrad Singh – sit around playing poker. About the video she says:

“I wasn’t totally thinking about making a video for this song, I just wanted to make some sort of compelling visual so I high jacked an Alabaster dePlume recording session at The Total Refreshment Centre two days before Christmas – we had a staff party! and asked my friend Ed to film us playing with cards (Stena Line). This song is about freeing yourself up so I guess I just wanted the visual to feel not too precious. I really like how the split screen distracts you just enough to focus in the right way and notice coincidences and cosmic moments in the two images playing together. It also feels very good to capture a moment with sweet friends in a place so full of heart like The Total Refreshment Centre…”

Watch the video below and grab Prize when it drops next week.