After sharing the intoxicating and hypnotic lead single ‘500 gr.‘, Belgian instrumental outfit ECHT! are teasing again their upcoming debut album, Inwane, with a new track called ‘Charlier’. “On that one we love how the trippy vibe is increased by Federico Pecoraro’s unreal bass solo”, comments the band. “On top of it, crazy production moves by Rowan Van Hoef open another dimension .” ‘Charlier’ comes with an accompanying video made by Toxic Motel. Watch it below and watch out for the release of Inwane on September 24th through Sdban Ultra.
Hot on the heels of the recently announced Environ Me, Manu Delago shared earlier this month a phenomenal video to accompany the album’s first single, ‘Interference’. The video depicts perfectly human interference in nature and features the staggeringly talented percussionist and composer along with five other percussionists on a metal structure, with electricity poles around and right in the middle of mountains. Watch it below.
Toronto based composer, percussionist and producer Brandon Valdivia is a very talented and busy musician, known for his membership and collaborations with bands like Not The Wind, Not The Flag, Picastro, The Cosmic Range, I Have Eaten The City, US Girls, Sandro Perri, Lido Pimienta and many more. Under the moniker Mas Aya, he is set to release his new solo album, Máscaras. Slated for a September 24th release through Telephone Explosion, Máscaras is rooted on his signature production style, encompassing “intricate spiraling synths, balmy environments, and crisp drum programming, variously drawing from trap, footwork, early Warp-label gestures, and the digital end of dancehall reggae”.
‘Momento Presente’ serves as the first enticing taste from the album and is offered with an accompanying video created by Gustavo Cerquera Benjumea. Here it is.
There’s wonderful news from singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Elena Setién, who has announced the release of a new album entitled Unfamiliar Minds. The San Sebastian native composed the album during lockdown, after putting out Mirande, a collaborative album with composer Xabier Erikizia, sang in her Basque language.
On Unfamiliar Minds, and as the press release explains, “Setién reflects on isolation, confusion and harnesses uncertainty with optimism on ten ghostly wonders that capture ineffable feelings in radiant detail.” The album is further described as “a palatial guide through trial and exaltation, a meditation on disquiet and hope for uncovering what lies ahead.”
As captivating as ever, Setién continues to beguile us with her shimmering and beautiful melodies, as well as her rich and deep voice. We’ll have to wait until January 28th for the album to be out through Thrill Jockey but we can already wrap our ears around the celestial title track. Here it is.
Multifaceted musician Jeremiah Cymerman, who is a phenomenal clarinetist, composer and producer, has a new album on the way entitled Citadels & Sanctuaries. With an impressive career of nearly twenty years in New York’s avant-garde and improvised music scene, Cymerman’s upcoming album is dedicated and reflects the influence composers such as Alvin Lucier, Morton Feldman, Evan Parker, Tony Scott, and many others have had on him. “I feel these pieces are genuine offerings of love and respect to just a few of the artists who have had a huge impact on me”, Cymerman explains. He continues:
“I wanted to inhabit the sound worlds of these artists, participating with the music as a player like I have as a listener. Some pieces were very deliberate from the start, while others happened more organically after they were being shaped. With different people in mind, it helped me focus each piece to get it to completion.”
Slated for an August 20th release through his own 5049 Records, Citadels & Sanctuaries was recorded during a month-long residency at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works at the tail end 2020, and unlike previous works, most tracks were captured in a single take. “This album was recorded when playing lines and melodies were feeling really good for me,” Cymerman explains. “It feels good to be able to share my work with people who might not have all this context about the music. They can just enjoy it because it has an immediacy to it. There are abrasive, dissonant parts that might be off-putting, but for the most part I like showing another side of myself. I don’t want to just make abstract, dark music all the time.”
Following lead single ‘From the Metaphysical to the Transcendental (For Bill Smith)’, Cymerman is enticing us with a new sublime piece from his album called ‘For As Long As Grass Grows (for Tony Scott)’. “I was 21 the first time I heard Music for Yoga Meditation and Other Joys by Tony Scott and it was nothing short of an epiphany,” Cymerman says about the inspiration behind this piece. “Beautiful and elegant lines on the clarinet by a master improviser, played with a restraint and groundedness not commonly found — it changed the way I thought about my instrument.”
The single is offered with an accompanying video. Watch it below and listen to the previously released ‘From the Metaphysical to the Transcendental (For Bill Smith)’ straight after.
Attacca Quartet‘s stunner of a new album, Real Life, has hit shelves earlier this month. Real Life is an album of electronic music arrangements featuring reworks of tracks from electronic artists such as Anne Müller, Squarepusher, Daedelus, The Halluci Nation and Mid-Air Thief. After sharing the album’s title track, a rework of Louis Cole’s ‘Real Life’, Attacca Quartet are offering a video to accompany new single ‘Remind U’ featuring TOKiMONSTA, originally by Flying Lotus. Guest collaborator TOKiMONSTA had this to day about the Grammy Award-winning string ensemble:
“The Attacca Quartet reminds me why I love music. Even in their world, they break rules to further the boundaries of classical music. It was truly a pleasure to work with them and dabble in the genre that first introduced me to music as a child.”
Violist Nathan Schram also commented on this collaboration:
“I remember the first time I heard Flying Lotus’ music. It was a confusing combination of exhilaration, envy, and deep FOMO. His music is hyper-sophisticated, endlessly nuanced, and hits all the feels you didn’t know you had. It became one of my missions in life to find a way to bring this wild energy to our ever-growing Attacca universe. Of the three FlyLo tracks on the album, ‘Remind U’ is the most gentle and sentimental – getting deep into that bittersweet territory that is so hard to describe. Bringing TOKiMONSTA into the mix was the icing on the cake that brings the nostalgia all the way home.”
The music video for ‘Remind U’ was created by Calypo Spritz. Watch it now.
