Donny McCaslin teases upcoming new album, Lullaby for the Lost, with lead single ‘Celestial’

18 July 2025

Photo: Dave Stapleton

We love ingenious artist, saxophonist, and composer Donny McCaslin, whose adventurous and ferocious album I Want More was one of our Album Picks of 2023. So we’re thrilled to know he’s ready to follow it up with Lullaby for the Lost, his new record arriving on September 26th through Edition Records.

Lullaby for the Lost delves into raw emotion and sonic exploration across nine explosive tracks, as McCaslin explains, “The balance of expressing passion, anger, and the wonder of beauty, while striving for oneness with the band has led to this moment”. Drawing influences from Neil Young’s energy, the industrial grit of Nine Inch Nails, and the rebellious force of Rage Against the Machine, the result is a fresh and fearless mix of rock intensity and jazz freedom, all while keeping his signature improvisational spirit.

Collaborating once again with his longtime bandmates, Jason Lindner on keyboards, Tim Lefebvre on bass, Jonathan Maron on bass, Ben Monder on guitar, and Zach Danziger and Nate Wood on drums, McCaslin captures that spontaneous and creative chemistry that drives the record. As he puts it, “So much of the vibe and the feel of this record came from us bouncing ideas, just following that connection wherever it led.”

Weaving themes of transformation, the album title speaks to McCaslin’s exploration of personal and collective trauma, while also embodying the resilience that emerges from those experiences. “It’s about hope… that inner light not being extinguished, but instead transformed,” he comments. “It’s learning to channel pain into something meaningful, even beautiful”. He calls the upcoming Lullaby for the Lost his most satisfying record yet. “I don’t think I’ve ever been happier with how a record turned out than this one,” he says. “It’s meaningful, it’s urgent, and it’s me.”

Alongside the album announcement, McCaslin has shared the striking lead single, ‘Celestial’, a track born spontaneously during a soundcheck in Fano, Italy. Give it a listen now.

Saul Williams and Carlos Niño announce first collaborative album, Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople

17 July 2025

Photo: Todd Weaver

Wonderful news from two radiant forces, Saul Williams and Carlos Niño, who have come together for a special release arriving later this summer. Entitled Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople, this marks the first collaborative album between poet, musician, and visionary Saul Williams and prolific percussionist, producer, and cosmic connector Carlos Niño, whose friendship traces back to the late ’90s. The album was recorded live in December 2024, beneath black oak and walnut trees in Coldwater Canyon Park, on the grounds of TreePeople, a longstanding conservationist hub in Los Angeles. Niño assembled a stellar ensemble of close collaborators for the performance, including Kamasi Washington, Nate Mercereau, Maia, Aaron Shaw, Francesca Heart, Andres Renteria, and even a special appearance by poet aja monet. Together, they built a richly textured electro-acoustic world around Saul’s grounding and galvanizing poetics. An album of invocation, memory, resistance, and release, it bridges generations, disciplines, and intentions.

Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople is out on August 28th through International Anthem and they have now unveiled the album’s lead single, ‘Sound then Words’, an affective, immersive and meditative track clocking in at sixteen minutes. Here it is.

New jazz supergroup lvdf set to release self-titled debut EP next month; share new single ‘The Anchor’

17 July 2025

lvdf is the thrilling new project from a quartet of forward-thinking players working at the cutting edge of contemporary jazz. Drummer and composer Myele Manzanza (New Zealand), pianist and synth soundscaper Maria Chiara Argirò (Italy), saxophonist Alex Hitchcock (UK), and double bassist Michelangelo Scandroglio (Italy) come together from across continents, each with their own distinct voice and rich catalogue of solo and collaborative work. All four are established bandleaders and collaborators in their own right, and the idea for the group first took shape during a workshop in the coastal Tuscan town of Follonica. That initial meeting of minds laid the groundwork for what became lvdf, which is short for La Via Del Ferro, or The Iron Way, a reference to the ancient Italian trade routes that connected local ironworks with the wider world, as the band explains:

“This metaphor of a road connecting a local industry to the wider world resonates deeply with us. Hailing from Italy, New Zealand, and the UK but residing in Paris, London, and New York, this music became a road that united us.”

Rooted in a shared love of rhythm and sonic experimentation, the group pulls from a wide spectrum of influences. After sell-out shows at Ronnie Scott’s and festival appearances in London and Bergamo, lvdf’s self-titled debut EP will be released on August 15 through Bridge The Gap. The upcoming EP “blends jazz traditions with modern production and a rhythm-driven focus”, as the press release describes, “balancing gorgeous melodies with complex, flowing polyrhythms and emotive soundscapes.”

Ahead of the EP’s release, they’ve recently shared their second single, ‘The Anchor’, an utterly gorgeous and groovy track built from the tail end of a collective improvisation. Speaking about the single, Manzanza comments:

“The Anchor is an edit drawn from a collective improvisation we did at the end of the recording session. Whilst we were all playing acoustic instruments, the reversed & reverbed saxophone created a beautiful flowing underwater texture that juxtaposed in an interesting way against the ‘Roots’-esque drums and bassline, and Maria’s looping piano pattern. Something that could be as much at home at an avant-garde performance at Cafe Oto as it could be in a Madlib beat tape.”

 ‘The Anchor’ is an exciting glimpse of what’s to come and you can listen to it below.

Steiger return with new album, Mowglowski’s First Take, share lead single ‘Gauchoman’

15 July 2025

Photo: Thor Salden

We’re big fans of Steiger, whose last album, The New Lady Llama, was one of our Album Picks of 2021 and remains an active favourite. So we’re over the moon to know that the Ghent trio of keyboardist Gilles Vandecaveye, bassist Kobe Boon and drummer Simon Raman are gearing to release a new album later this year titled Mowglowski’s First Take.

Over the past decade, Steiger has carved out a singular space in the Belgian jazz and improv scene, continuously shifting form and exploring disparate territories and influences through composition and improvisation. After a few years off doing their own thing — playing in various projects like Peenoise, mòs Ensemble, Uma Chine and Ivy Falls — the trio is back together, and the spark is still very much alive. As ever, Steiger are reaching for the outer fringes of jazz and drawing on minimalism, electronica, post-classical and improv, with their own sense of mischief and exploration. Where The New Lady Llama leaned into lush contrasts between acoustic and electronic textures, Mowglowski’s First Take feels freer and bolder, but still melodic and accessible. Produced by Frederik Segers (Black Flower, Fulco, De Beren Gieren), the record has a real warmth to it and it’s imbued with joy and openness in the playing. “The music radiates a joie de vivre with a good dose of humour”, as the press release describes, “but does not shy away from darkness either”.

We’ll have to wait until October 17th for the album to be out but Steiger have let loose the first single, ‘Gauchoman’, a witty, weird, and totally infectious track. If this single is anything to go by, Mowglowski’s First Take is going to be one of the most exciting releases of the year. Take a listen below.


To tide you over until the album’s release, check out the excellent guest mixtape Steiger put together for us back in August 2021.

Watch Lucrecia Dalt’s video for new single ‘caes’ feat. Camille Mandoki

11 July 2025

With her highly anticipated ninth album A Danger to Ourselves arriving in just under two months, Lucrecia Dalt has shared the third single from the album, ‘caes’, a dense and thunderous piece featuring the evocative voice of Mexican sound artist Camille Mandoki. Dalt cites Ana Mendieta and Evelyn McHale as poetic inspirations, tying the song’s lyrical content to meditations on legacy and tragedy. “Musically, I wanted to hint at a slowed-down and diluted dembow, but with a melodic energy that felt ancient,” she noted, continuing:

“It features my dear friend Camille. She has a unique voice that is rare to hear nowadays. I love it when female voices carry a certain depth, and they don’t spend too much time in the upper, breathy register. Poetically, it’s an amalgamation of various references; it examines the legacy of one’s life through the lens of tragedy. Ana Mendieta and Evelyn McHale were specific figures, in my mind.”

The single is offered with an accompanying video, shot between the American Southwest and Mexico City, which captures the same sense that Dalt describes: “It is in the act of surrendering oneself to falling that the total, the sublime, enters?”

Watch the video below and grab A Danger to Ourselves when it lands on September 5th through RVNG Intl.

Mulatu Astatke returns with first full studio album in over a decade, Mulatu Plays Mulatu

10 July 2025

Photo: Karston Tannis

It’s been over a decade since Mulatu Astatke released a full-length studio album. Lucky for us, this September, he returns with Mulatu Plays Mulatu, a new record set for release on September 26th through Strut. The album revisits and reworks key pieces from across his career, offering new arrangements that reflect both his musical evolution and enduring vision. Known as the father of Ethio-jazz, Astatke was instrumental in creating a unique fusion of traditional Ethiopian music with jazz and Latin influences during the “Swinging Addis” era. “Throughout my life, I wanted to bring Ethio jazz to all corners of the world for people to enjoy and I feel that I have succeeded in that,” he says.

On Mulatu Plays Mulatu, classics like ‘Yekermo Sew’, ‘Nètsanèt’ and ‘Kulun’ are reshaped with new arrangements, weaving expanded improvisations and rich textures. The record balances Western jazz structures with traditional Ethiopian instruments including the krar, masenqo, washint, kebero and begena. “Ethio-jazz brings us together and makes us one,” says Astatke. “This album is the culmination of my work bringing this music to the world and pays respect to our unsung heroes, the original musical scientists in Ethiopia who gave us our cultural music.”

Ahead of the album’s release, we can already hear the first splendid single, ‘Nètsanèt’, a reworking of the classic track meaning “freedom”. It was recorded between London and Addis Ababa, with Astatke working alongside his long-standing UK band, an ensemble shaped through years of live performance and Jazz Village sessions in Addis. Listen to it below.