Black Flower announce new album, Magma, and share first single ‘O Fogo’

11 November 2021

Black Flower are a Belgian collective captained by brilliant saxophonist, flutist and composer Nathan Daems, a musician who has shown his style and versatility in various projects like Ragini Trio, the Karsilama Quintet, Dijf Sanders and Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra. Exploring everything from Ethio jazz and afrobeat to psychedelia, western musical traditions and oriental influences, the quintet comprises four other adventurous musicians of the highest calibre, Jon Birdsong (dEUS, Beck, Calexico) on cornet, Simon Segers (Absynthe Minded, De Beren Gieren, MDCIII) on drums, Filip Vandebril (Lady Linn, The Valerie Solanas) on bass, and as of recently Karel Cuelenaere (John Ghost) on keys.

With a new full length on the way, there’s reason to celebrate. Entitled Magma, the album arrives on January 28th through Sdban Ultra and along with the news, Black Flower have shared the first thrilling single, ‘O Fogo’. The band comments:

“Organ and flute move like a dancing flame to the almost naive groove, giving the track a feeling of lightness and positivity. We imagine us to be crossing nature, slightly unprepared, excited to go on an adventure and eager to be stunned by everything we see. The track is named after the Capeverdian volcano and translates as ‘The Fire’.”

‘O Fogo’ comes with an accompanying video made by Philippe Werkers. Watch it now.

Watch Jerusalem In My Heart’s short film for ‘Tanto’ featuring Lucrecia Dalt

10 November 2021

Hot on the heels of the release of Qalaq, Jerusalem In My Heart shared last week a short film to accompany album track ‘Tanto’ featuring guest Lucrecia Dalt. Speaking about this collaboration, Radwan Ghazi Moumneh has this to say:

“Lucrecia Dalt and I have shared much music with one another, and over the course of the many years of knowing each other and sharing stages, we decided to collaborate on the track “Tanto” for Qalaq. We discussed a few ideas and wanted to keep it minimal, but maintain the form of a ‘duet’. We exchanged some music and she came up with a beautiful tape loop for the backbone of the track, through which we were able to find our vocal identities. It was a haunting, eerie, out-of-time tape loop, which she proposed after I had sent her the (Arabic) lyrics and a translation of them—and most importantly, their intention. The song is meant to evoke the feeling of ‘envy’ familiar to many people in developing nations.”

The accompanying film was shot on 16mm by new member Erin Weisgerber with concept and performance by dancer/choreographer Stacey Desilier. Radwan comments:

“Erin Weisgerber and I decided to make a small film for this song. I had wanted to work with the incredible Stacey Desilier as a choreographer and dancer. We exchanged some ideas and I sent everyone some film references, to which everyone echoed back others, and from there we settled on a setting and imagery and actions and shot this film in the forests north of Tiohtia:ke / Montréal.”

Watch the film below.

Qalaq is out now through Constellation

Poppy Ackroyd releases new single ‘Murmurations’; new album Pause out this Friday

09 November 2021

With just a few days to go until the release of Pause, the new album from talented multi-instrumentalist and composer Poppy Ackroyd, she has shared another gorgeous single called ‘Murmurations’. The track is based on the flocking behaviour of starlings and “focusses on big, sweeping migrations, until it fixes on a singular bird’s journey”. ‘Murmurations’ comes with an accompanying video filmed at Rak Studios by Sound Network. Watch it below and grab the below when it’s out on Friday through One Little Independent Records.

Mario Batkovic releases second single, ‘Repertio’, from upcoming album

03 November 2021

Last month Mario Batkovic announced the release of a new album, Introspectio, and along the news shared the the first spellbinding single, ‘Chorea Duplex’, featuring James Holden. With just a month to go until the album is out, the accordion virtuoso is enticing us with a second single called ‘Repertio’, featuring drummer Clive Deamer (Radiohead/Portishead/Robert Plant/Roni Size) and former BEAK> member Matthew Williams aka MXLX. Batkovic comments:

“At the beginning almost classically presumptuous, the piece finds its players. It changes, transforms, becomes wilder and all this without losing its core content. The piece was created in Bristol Invada Studio and the meeting with Clive Deamer and Matt Williams was a successful start for wild anarchistic, dissonant and yet harmonious work. I personally found the work more than amusing. It was an insane musical encounter on another planet”

Deamer also had this to say about it:

‘Repertio was recorded in pre-Covid times with Mario at the Invada Studio in Bristol, that feels a long time ago now as I’m sure it does everyone else trying to emerge from the pandemic. Geoff and Mario both invited me to collaborate with him after his performance at Islington Assembly Hall earlier that year. I really like Mario’s album, it’s an imposing gothic latin edifice that would assuage the most discerning contemporary vampire. It’s also an honour to share Introspectio alongside Mario’s more extraordinary fellow collaborators Colin Stetson and James Holden”

‘Repertio’ comes with an accompanying video made by Lukas Meier. Here it is.


Introspectio is out on December 3rd through Invada Records

Asa Tone set to release Live At New Forms this month

01 November 2021

Asa Tone, the multidisciplinary outfit of Melati Malay, Tristan Arp and Kaazi, are getting ready to release Live At New Forms later this month. Originally a commissioned work by producer and festival curator Yu Su for the New Forms Festival in Vancouver in 2020, Asa Tone worked together remotely whilst in lockdown in Mexico City, New York and the Australian rainforest, “embracing new approaches in chance-based composition”, as the press release explains. Malay, Arp and Kaaazi “individually recorded a pool of generative loops and field recordings in lieu of performed “songs,” adhering to general tempo and key parameters”. The result, a continuous 30 minute piece, was then adapted and spatialized for a 4D sound / 32-channel audio system by Yu Su and its showing at the festival was paired with a custom modular video work by artist Nika Milano.

Ahead of the album’s release, Asa Tone are enticing us with ‘II’, offered with a visual accompaniment by Milano.

Live At New Forms is out on November 19th through Leaving Records