Becker & Mukai announce new album, Time Very Near, and share first single ‘The Double’

18 February 2020

Becker & Mukai is the super duo of French composer Jean-Gabriel Becker and London based Japanese multitalented and ultraprolific musician and producer Susumu Mukai. Becker is known for his extensive work on film soundtracks and producing music under several guises, and Mukai’s sonic explorations include forays in a myriad of styles, projects and collaborations, including Vanishing Twin, Floating Points, Off World and Fimber Bravo, not to mention his phenomenally brilliant alter ego Zongamin.

A match made in heaven, Becker and Mukai’s collaboration started with jams in an underground studio/den in East London nearly four years ago, as the press release explains. “Beginning as exploratory and spontaneous, these improv sessions evolved as the duo found their own blend, which came to combine Tunisian saxophones and West-African shakers with FM synthesisers and Eventide harmonizers.”

Eyes EP was their first release in 2018, followed by another EP, Auf Togo meets Becker & Mukai. Now Becker and Mukai are set to release a new album entitled Time Very Near. The good news comes paired with the ‘The Double’, the first thrilling taste of it. Take a listen below.

Time Very Near is out on April 20th

Watch Anna Meredith’s video for ‘Sawbones’

13 February 2020

Coinciding with a handful of sold out shows in the UK earlier this month, electronic contemporary composer Anna Meredith shared a brilliant video to accompany ‘Sawbones’. The track is taken from her latest album FIBS, released last October through Moshi Moshi. Watch the video below, directed by Foxall Studio.

Anna Meredith is also taking her musical spark to the US, for a string of live dates in March. Check all her stops here.

Dijf Sanders shares new single ‘Santoshi Mata’

12 February 2020

With only a couple of days to go until the release of Puja, and after sharing ‘Ravana’, Ghent based multi-instrumentalist and composer Dijf Sanders is teasing his upcoming album again with new single ‘Santoshi Mata’. The track comes with an accompanying video directed by Bert Juliaan Vercruysse, who remarked:

“The first time I listened to Dijf’s ‘Santoshi Mata’ was coincidentally in the oldest temple in Nepal, Changu Narayan, a stone’s throw from Baktapur. At that moment everything actually coincided: Dijf who likes to play (music) with Game Boys, his Nepal adventures and this exciting song named after the goddess of sufficiency. It was obvious that I was going to make a kind of Nepalese Game Girl in a pixelated Nepal.”

Watch the video below.

Puja is out on February 14th through Unday Records.

Listen to Sunny Jain’s new single ‘Red, Brown, Black (Feat. Haseeb)’

07 February 2020

Photo: Ebru Yildiz

Following the mighty first single, ‘Immigrant Warrior’, and the title track, Sunny Jain is teasing again his upcoming album, Wild Wild East. The brilliant and acclaimed Indian-American composer and dhol player has shared a third single called ‘Red, Brown, Black’, which features LA-based rapper Haseeb. Jain explains how this collaboration happened:

“A good friend and NYC Basement Bhangra pioneer, DJ Rekha, mentioned Haseeb to me over 2 years ago. I started checking his tracks out and I think what drew me to him was – here’s a South Asian Muslim-American in LA talking about things that I can immediately relate to. I hit him up and he was immediately down to collab on a track. We went back and forth on the subject matter I wanted to address in the song and he did that and more. Red, Brown, Black addresses the concept of this album head on, playing with the words Indian, Cowboy, Native, Sheriff.”

Listen to ‘Red, Brown, Black’ below and grab the album when it’s out on February 21st through Smithsonian Folkways.

In other related news, and in support of the upcoming Wild Wild East, Sunny Jain has announced a string of shows in the US. Take a look at all his stops in his website.

Alabaster dePlume shares video for new single ‘What’s Missing’

06 February 2020

Last month Alabaster dePlume announced a new album entitled To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 and offered the warm and beguiling first single ‘Whisky Story Time’. As we get closer to release day, the marvellous spoken word artist, bandleader, composer, saxophonist and activist is giving us another tantalizing glimpse at what’s to come with new single ‘What’s missing’. The track comes with a poignant video directed by Daisy Dickinson, featuring words from Chilean President Salvador Allende’s last speech to the nation just before his death in the US backed coup by Augusto Pinochet in 1973. Here it is.


To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol. 1 is out on February 28th through International Anthem, Lost Map and Total Refreshment Centre.