The Utopia Strong set to release self-titled debut album in September

30 August 2019

Photo: Al Overdrive

The Utopia Strong is the exciting new synth project that brings together Kavus Torabi (Gong/Cardiacs/Knifeworld/Guapo), Michael J. York (Coil/ Teleplasmiste/Guapo) and former Snooker champion Steve Davis. With musical tastes in common, the three first got together in 2017 at Glastonbury festival, and as Steve Davis explained, “once we’d jammed together and listened back to the improvising – the music felt pretty euphoric and otherworldly. It was very psychedelic but also strangely wonky”.

Next month will see The Utopia Strong release their self-titled debut album, and the trio had previously shared the epic and hypnotic first single ‘Brainsurgeons 3’, clocking in at over 10 minutes in length. They have followed it with the extraordinary kosmiche track ‘Konta Chorus’. Both come with accompanying videos, the latter made by John O’Carroll. Here they are.

The Utopia Strong is out on September 13th through Rocket Recordings.

Aki Rissanen’s new album Art in Motion out next month

29 August 2019

Finnish pianist Aki Rissanen is set to release a new album with his long-lasting trio featuring bassist Antti Lötjönen and drummer Teppo Mäkynen. Entitled Art in Motion, the upcoming album takes its name from a word play with the initials of Aki Rissanen Trio and “the influence of art music from the European repertoire”, as Rissanen explains in the liner notes. On the word motion, he explains they are “a rhythmically intense band inspired by the aesthetics of electronic dance music”, adding that they, “as jazz musicians, are in constant motion because our form of art doesn’t ever stand still!”.

Following the release of ‘Aeropeans’, Rissanen has shared a second single from the record called ‘Cantus Arcticus, Melancholy’, an orchestral composition written by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. Listen to both singles below and grab the album when it´s out on September 13th through Edition Records.

Floating Points returns with new album Crush

29 August 2019

Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points is back with a new record, his first in four years. Entitled Crush, the effort arrives October 18th though Ninja Tune, and according to a press release, nods to the UK bass scene he emerged from in the late 2000s. Crush is described as “a tempestuous blast of electronic experimentalism whose title alludes to the pressure-cooker of the current environment we find ourselves in”.

Shepherd has shared new track ‘Last Bloom’, paired with an accompanying video by Hamill Industries, who are behind the reactive laser technologies used in his previous tours. Take a look.

Le Guess Who? reveals full curated programs for this year’s event, including Efterklang, Lightning Bolt, Murcof, Holly Herndon + more

28 August 2019

We’ve spent the last couple of years raving about how great Le Guess Who? is and with good reason. For four days and nights every November, the festival takes over the quaint and historic city of Utrecht with a kaleidoscopic range of delightful and diverse performances. With today’s announcement, Le Guess Who?, celebrating its 13th edition from November 7-10, shows that it continues to be guided by an adventurous, independent and uncompromising spirit.

Le Guess Who?‘s organisers had already fired us with enthusiasm with the first announcement of performing artists within the general line-up, as well as guest curators and initial curated bills from Jenny Hval, Patrick Higgins, The Bug and Moon Duo. Today the festival unveils the final additions to these bills, as well as the picks of Fatoumata Diawara and Iris van Herpen & Salvador Breed, and other special performances and unique collaborations.

Afrocubism and Afrofuturism-related artists will be the core of Fatoumata Diawara’s curatorial selections. The inventive Malian artist had previously collaborated with multi-talented Cuban jazz musician, composer and bandleader Roberto Fonseca, and she invites him for a solo performance at the festival. Diawara’s curated bill will also host performances from activist rapper Master Soumy, who’s at the forefront of Mali’s hip hop movement, and the soul-stirring Tuareg folk of guitarist and singer/songwriter Ahmed Ag Kaedy, fresh off the back of his new solo acoustic album, Akaline Kidal. Living in exile, Kaedy named the album after Kidal, his northern Mali hometown where he is banished from. Two films will also feature on Diawara’s program, Mali Blues and Yao.

Dutch designer and couturier Iris van Herpen and her partner, sound artist Salvador Breed, have invited Efterklang, the Danish trio of childhood friends Mads Brauer, Casper Clausen and Rasmus Stolberg, who constantly venture in new and exciting directions and are back with new album Altid Sammen. They have also invited Egyptian-Iranian experimental pop/R&B artist Lafawndah, Mexican artist Murcof, Hip-Hop and Soul duo Oshun, J-E-T-S, the collaborative project of producers Machinedrum and Jimmy Edgar, and Klavikon, the project of virtuoso pianist Leon Michener mastering the cross-pollination between techno and classical music with merely a prepared piano, “no loops, no laptops, no sequencers”. Van Herpen and Breed’s program will also feature an exhibition by British hand embroidery artist James Merry, best known for his otherworldly creations for Björk.

Amongst the new additions to curated programs is the avant-pop of electronic musician Holly Herndon presenting her multi-sensory experience ‘PROTO’, which is also her bold and challenging third album inspired and created with artificial intelligence. Herndon’s performance comes courtesy of three curators, Patrick Higgins, Iris van Herpen & Salvador Breed and Moon Duo.
Patrick Higgins will host Dossier X, his own immersive audio-visual collaboration with installation artist Matthew Schreiber and choreographer Monica Mirabile and Rhode Island noise rock duo Lightning Bolt with new record Sonic Citadel under their belt. Moon Duo add to their curation Berlin-based Argentinian duo Mueran Humanos, and self-taught violinist and vocalist Sudan Archives who popped up on our radar a couple of years ago through the spectacular line-up of Le Guess Who 2017 edition. There are new additions to The Bug’s program, with organist and composer Kali Malone set for a special organ performance and The Bug’s performance with grime MC Flowdan.

Other exciting and fresh additions to Le Guess Who?’s 2018 line-up include two label nights from Portugal’s powerhouse dance label Príncipe Discos and Rome-based techno label Spazio Disponibile, both bringing over to Utrecht a chunk of artists from their roster.
Another special performance now announced is that of Belgrade based DJ/producer Vladimir Ivkovic. Twenty years on from the death of Serbian producer Mitar Suboti, also known as Suba and Rex Ilusivii, his shelved iconic album Wayang, got widely released for the first time and Ivkovic will perform it in its entirety.

This year’s Le Guess Who? Festival will undoubtedly be a musical treasure rammed with surprises and delights and there is yet a lot more to be unveiled for the 13th edition. Daily tickets and 4-Day Festival Passes are now available on leguesswho.com, where you can also find newly confirmed artists and more info.

Listen to Sandro Perri’s new single ‘Wrong About The Rain’

27 August 2019

Soft Landing, the new album from the ever so wonderful and inventive Sandro Perri is just around the corner. Perri had already enticed us with an excerpt of the warm and sublime 16-minute opening track ‘Time (You Got Me)‘. Ahead of the album’s release on September 6th through Constellation, he has shared the divine second single ‘Wrong About The Rain’.

Preceding the release of Soft Landing, Sandro Perri is heading to the UK for three special shows, marking his first European solo shows in seven years. Take a look at all his stops below:

1st September – Larmer Tree Gardens @ End Of The Road Festival
4th September – Coventry @ The Tin at The Coal Vaults
5th September – London @ Kings Place

Alev Lenz’s third album 3 out in September

26 August 2019

Photo: Lee Kirby

London based German-Turkish composer and producer Alev Lenz has been making waves owing to her extraordinary creativity, with voice, piano, and experimental electronics taking a central place. She has a third album on the way aptly titled 3 and slated for a September 27th release through SA Recordings. Featuring twelve songs, mostly acapella, 3 is “an exploration of empowerment and recent motherhood, a powerful stripped-down work birthed through creative necessity and the challenges fresh parenthood brings”, describes the press release. “After becoming a first-time mother, Alev filled her notebooks with poems, drawings and music; ‘3’ is the culmination of necessity, limitations and desires of this moment in her life.”

Earlier this month, and following the release of ‘May the Angels’, Lenz released the album’s second single ‘The Chair’, serving as an ode to American writer, feminist and civil rights activist Audre Lorde and her text ‘The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House’. Take a listen to both now.