Juana Molina‘s wonderful album Halo, released in 2017, still has a total and timeless hold on us. Now that her upcoming European tour is sadly unlikely to go ahead for obvious reasons, the multi-talented and inventive artist is spreading a little joy with a surprise rendition of ‘Cara de Espejo’, lifted from Halo. The new version was recorded and filmed at her home studio near Buenos Aires, and directed by Alejo Moguillansky. Watch it below.
At a time where music is like a salvation, Chip Wickham is treating us with a new splendid release. The immensely talented British flautist and saxophonist has announced the release of Blue to Red, arriving on May 8th through Lovemonk Records. Blue to Red is Wickham’s third album but he has been making music for the last few decades. Wickham initially emerged from Manchester’s modal-jazz scene in the late 90s, and has played and collaborated with the likes of Matthew Halsall, Nat Birchall, 808 State, Nightmares On Wax, Badly Drawn Boy, The New Mastersounds and Grand Central Records, to name but a few.
The upcoming Blue to Red is “his most absorbing and cosmically-charged offering to date”, as the press release describes. “Soaring flute melodies, lush harp arpeggios and glistening Rhodes keys interact across six journeying, spiritual jazz compositions, leaning on a rich palette of sounds beyond borders, space and time.”
The album’s title alludes to Earth’s possible Mars-like future. As Wickham puts it, “it’s a culture crisis rather than a climate crisis, one that can only be solved if we go right to the core of how we live as human beings”.
Blue to Red saw Wickham enlist a stellar cast of musicians from the UK’s thriving jazz scene, including Sons of Kemet and Mulatu Astatke drummer, Jon Scott, Simon Houghton aka Sneaky of Fingathing (double bass/cello), Nightmares On Wax affiliate Dan Goldman aka JD 73 (keys) and pioneering jazz harpist Amanda Whiting.
Ahead of the album’s release, we can already hear the celestially sublime title track. Here it is.
Based out of Brooklyn, drummer and composer Matt Evans has collaborated and contributed to innumerable musical projects in numerous directions, including Tigue, Bearthoven, Man Forever and Private Elevators, as well as honing in on his own solo work. This April will see him release his debut record, New Topographics, a bewitching collection of rhythmic percussion/electronic pieces stemming from a month-long residency at Brooklyn artist space Pioneer Works. Read on for some insight from Evans about it:
“For me, there’s a link between these sonic byproducts and human empathy— a gateway towards a greater conversation on what it means to live the paradox of complicitness— a guide to re-focusing how we understand the consequences of our actions by way of sound. The first step toward any significant change in our behaviour is becoming aware of the object like significance of our actions. Making this record has been a way of tuning my ears to this phenomenon. To learn the language of these object-like byproducts so as to speak the language my own way and further empathize with that which I was not previously informed. Being aware, being sensitive to that awareness, and reflecting that experience outwards. This is how we can make a shift in how we see ourselves in the world. Making this music was a way to practice understanding what I leave behind. We put up walls to function, but if we make a habit of taking them down and really looking and listening to what’s happening around us, we will have greater empathy for the people and beings we share space with. Our ability to empathize with the earth itself will grow.”
Following the release of first single ‘Cold Moon’, Evans has recently shared the celestial and soothing opening track ‘Full Squid’, remarking that “the title refers to a state of being more than the cephalopod itself, a zoomorphic phrase for the experience of drumming at the precipice of presentness”. He continues, “’Full Squid’ was born from a kind of personal meditation, a “spiritual” performance practice that attempts to bend a typical sense of time through stream-of-consciousness playing pushed to the brink. It’s a drummy dive into a sound stream of crackling creatures, wiggly drones and globby ink-splatter harmonies, without coming up for air.”
Slated for an April 17th release through Whatever’s Clever, New Topographics awaits you. Prick up your ears and give a listen to both singles below.
Glass Museum, the Belgian instrumental duo of Antoine Flipo and Martin Grégoire, are set to release their somophore album, Reykjavik, next month, following their 2018 debut Deux. Merging classical music, electronics and jazz, on the upcoming album, the pair’s duality remains their foundational element. “Antoine has this epic side in everything he does, including composition,” says Grégoire. “He’s also got the skill to translate a more classical tradition in a contemporary way.” Speaking about Grégoire, Flipo said he “has the ability to adapt to anything. There’s a lot more percussion on this album, because we have a very open dialogue between us that allows him to take over any kind of sound.”
Ahead of Reykjavik‘s release on April 24th through Sdban Ultra, Glass Museum have shared a wonderful new single, ‘Abyss’, and a self-directed accompanying video. Watch it below.
We’re thrilled to know Qasim Naqvi has a new release on the way, following last year’s Teenages, which was one of our 15 Album Picks of 2019. Entitled Beta, the album is meant as a sister release to Teenages, which was brought to life using an analog modular synthesizer built by Naqvi over the course of two years. The extraordinary percussionist and composer explains:
“Beta is a prequel to the story of Teenages. At the time I had the most basic elements of a modular synthesizer- one oscillator and a random voltage generator which is a module that releases sporadic currents through the system. Ironically, this component provided a lot of warmth and humanness to the music, a kind of fallibility. I fed simple melodic ideas and rhythmic patterns into this bare bones setup and observed the responses, while occasionally guiding the music in other directions. It was like a diagnostic test. At the time I felt that this music was underdeveloped but listening back, I think the Beta tracks add an interesting dimension to the entire Teenages arc. They’re the zygotes.”
The B side of the record is a live performance of the track ‘Teenages’, recorded at London’s Southbank Centre in February 2019. “I had performed this work just a couple of times and this particular one was special”, says Naqvi. “There were microphones up everywhere and you could hear the room bleeding into the sound of the synthesizer.”
Beta will be released as a limited edition on clear vinyl for Record Store Day on April 18th through Erased Tapes but we can already hear a striking track off it, ‘Matic’. Take a listen below.
All hail the return of legendary experimental pop group Aksak Maboul, who have announced the release of Figures, their first album in 40 years. Set for release on May 15th through the band’s founder Marc Hollander’s own Crammed Discs, Figures features a cast of stellar guests including Fred Frith, Steven Brown (Tuxedomoon), and several members of Aquaserge.
The thrilling news comes paired with the first single, ‘Tout a une Fin’, featuring vocals from co-producer Véronique Vincent. The single is offered with an accompanying video directed by animator and collagist Yoann Stehr. Watch it below.
