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.


Listen to a new track from Laurie Anderson, Tenzin Choegyal and Jesse Paris Smith’s upcoming Songs from the Bardo

21 August 2019

Following the immersive and contemplative ‘Lotus Born, No Need to Fear‘, Smithsonian Folkways are offering a new taste from the upcoming Songs from the Bardo, the collaborative long-form composition that brings together pioneering avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, Tibetan singer and multi-instrumentalist Tenzin Choegyal, and activist and composer Jesse Paris Smith. The new track is called ‘Listen Without Distraction’ and you can listen to it below.

Songs from the Bardo will be released on September 27th through Smithsonian Folkways

Manu Delago teases upcoming album with video for new single ‘Zeitgeber’

09 August 2019

Staggeringly talented Austrian percussionist and composer Manu Delago has a much anticipated new record on the way, Circadian, and last month he enticed us with the bewitching lead single ‘The Silent Flight of the Owl’. As if we needed any more reasons to be excited for the release of Circadian, Delago has unveiled an explosive masterpiece of a song called ‘Zeitgeber’. Circadian is inspired by the concept of the body’s internal clock known as Circadian rhythms, and ‘Zeitgeber’ “represents the morning hours – a sort of ‘musical alarm clock’”, as Delago explained. Picked as the album’s closing track, ‘Zeitgeber’ “starts another precious day.” There’s a terrific video accompanying the track, directed by Jeb Hardwick. Watch it below.

Circadian is out on September 13th through One Little Indian Records

Listen to Gabriel Ólafs’ new single ‘Staircase Sonata’

06 August 2019

Following the first single ‘Cyclist Waltz’, young Icelandic composer and pianist Gabriel Ólafs has shared ‘Staircase Sonata’, also lifted from his upcoming debut album Absent Minded. A storm that flooded his studio is in the origin of the song, as Ólafs explains:

“All my instruments and microphones were in a big pool of water and the fire department came and carried my piano into the stairwell. Although it was an unpleasant event, I really enjoyed the reverb in the stairwell – so that’s where I composed the song. It’s bittersweet but it’s meant to capture positivity in a moment of unhappiness.”

‘Staircase Sonata’ is being offered with a video, directed and shot by Viktor A. Bogdanski. Here it is.


Absent Minded is out on August 23rd through One Little Indian.