Photo: Eslam Abd El Salam
As if we needed any more reasons to be excited for the release of Nancy Mounir‘s upcoming debut album Nozhet El Nofous, she has let loose a third single from the album titled ‘Gannentini’ featuring Zaki Mourad. It follows two previously released singles, the poignant and eerie ‘Ana Bas Saktalak’ featuring Fatma Serry and the otherworldly and entrancing ‘Khafif Khafif’. Listen to ‘Gannentini’ below and grab the album when it’s out on June 3rd through Simsara Records.
Photo: Emily Dennison
This Summer will see the release of Between Two Waves, the new EP from Manchester’s unique and quirky jazz trio GoGo Penguin. Following the magnificent ‘Badeep’, they have shared a new single called ‘Wave Decay’. “The title comes from a recent fascination with free diving and underwater themes”, GoGo Penguin explain. “The movement of the piano chords, particularly with the addition of the palm mute pedal, felt like the swell of ocean waves.” The track features the Palm Mute Pedal, a new 3D-printed and foot-operated pedal designed and developed by Danish pianist Otto Sammy. Take a listen below.
Between Two Waves EP is out on July 1st through XXIM Records/Sony
Earlier this month JOYFULTALK put out Familiar Science, a bewildering marvel of an album and we can’t stop listening to it. Jay Crocker, the incredible multi-disciplinary artist behind the project, has shared recently the album title track as a new single, and paired it with a video made by himself. Watch it below and grab the album now through Constellation.
Aura, the much anticipated new album from Hatis Noit, will see the light of day on June 24th through Erased Tapes. As with her previous record, Illogical Dance, on the upcoming Aura she used only her vocals to create all the songs, except for ‘Inori’, which features a field recording she took of the ocean one kilometre away from Fukushima’s nuclear power plant.
The London based Japanese vocal performer has shared the mesmerizing and poignant new single ‘Angelus Novus’, which means ‘New Angel’ in Latin. The track takes its name from a monoprint by Swiss-German artist Paul Klee, which can be found in Angel of History, an essay from literary critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin. “When I wrote this song, I remembered this image of an angel flying against the rough winds of history, which resonated very strongly with me in regards to both personal and social struggles”, Hatis explains. “The song has a very intimate, introverted outro as I wanted it to end with a place of healing.”
The track is offered with an accompanying A.I.-generated video directed by Yuma Kishi. Watch it below.
Three years from the release of their eponymous debut album, which was one of our Album Picks of 2019, The Utopia Strong are gearing up to release a second studio album titled International Treasure. Back in March, the trio of Kavus Torabi (Gong / Cardiacs / Knifeworld / Guapo), Michael York (Coil / Teleplasmiste / Guapo) and former Snooker champion Steve Davis, had already enticed us with the otherworldly ‘Shepherdess’. As we get closer to release day on June 10th through Rocket Recordings, they have shared the album’s closing track ‘Castalia’. Speaking about it, the band comments:
“Castalia was one of the first tunes we started for International Treasure, it felt so optimistic and forgiving which was such a tonic during the somber period in which the album was recorded. Castalia initially felt at odds with the rest of the album which generally has a much bleaker, melancholic tone – to our ears at least – but by putting it in as the last tune it somehow makes sense of everything that went before.
Torabi adds:
“It has this end of the night kind of feeling, it put us in mind of Orbital’s Belfast or Ashra’s Sunrain. Steve and I thought it would sound perfect as the last tune we’d play in a DJ set, in fact initially I wanted to call it ‘Last Song Of The Night’ but thankfully Mike wasn’t having any of it! The vocal at the end once again comes from Katharine Blake who sang on the last piece of our debut album, Moonchild. We liked the conceptual continuity of that but also, along with the use of acoustic instruments, the way it humanises the track too.
‘Castalia’ is offered with an accompanying video made by Mike Bourne and Torabi had this to say about it:
“Mike Bourne, who created the video, has been a friend before we were even a band. It was he who inspired Steve to take up the modular synthesiser in the first place. We loved his work anyway and he’d created an astonishing video for The Holy Family, another Rocket band Mike York and I are involved with, so we were very keen to work with him. He’d specifically asked to do the video for Castalia and knowing his work we gave him a free hand. I think the end results absolutely crystallise the vibe and atmosphere of the piece, we couldn’t be happier.”
Watch the video below and don’t let their upcoming gem of an album slip away.
With the impending release of the new album from Matthew Bourne, titled Irrealis, quickly approaching through The Leaf Label, the imaginative pianist and composer has shared new track ‘Asaf’, following the beguiling lead single, ‘Alice’. Speaking about the new track, Bourne explains:
“’Asaf’ is gifted to musician Asaf Sirkis. Along with Shri Siram and Dušan Petrović, we played together at the Garana Jazz Festival in August 2020. I’m sure most of us can remember exactly what we were doing around that time, and there was a sense of the intrepid, or an auspicious quality to the whole exercise of making this meeting happen, and its imprint was considerable.”
Lend your ears to ‘Asaf’ below.
Irrealis is out on May 27th and is available to pre-order now as a limited edition black vinyl edition through bandcamp.
