Joan Arnau Pàmies set to release new album, Guidelines/Fonaments, in April

24 February 2025

Photo: Iolanda Sebé

Born in Catalonia, and raised in Boston and Chicago before returning to Catalonia, Joan Arnau Pàmies is a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist with a vast and diverse work that includes live electronics, acoustic instruments, atypical forms of music notation, electroacoustic pieces, and free improvisation. His 15-year career encompasses a huge range of music; from classical and modern music to jazz, from glitch to avant-garde pop, setting himself apart as a versatile musician who eschews genre conventions in favour of cultivating his own voice through a liberating musical space.

Pàmies has announced the release of his new album Guidelines/Fonaments, a deeply personal and genre-defying record that expands his own sonic explorations and blurs the lines between solo piano music, ambient, contemporary classical music, and free improvisation. “It is an intensely personal exploration, inviting listeners into a meditative state to reflect on the synthesis of diverse sound worlds and experience yet-to-be-known aesthetic perspectives,” Pàmies reveals this insight. He continues:

“The album’s title, Guidelines/Fonaments, reflects the principles I’ve developed since returning to Catalonia—foundations for what I see as a groundbreaking evolution of my aesthetic. The bilingual title—in English and Catalan—is deeply personal, a reflection of my own life (my wife is American and my kids are dual citizens), and a metaphor meant to express how I see music: a historical product in constant struggle between past traditions and present aesthetic concerns. The pieces that form this record are my “guidelines” as well as my “foundations”: they present ideas that have been important to me for many years but also show new principles upon which to create future music.”

In his commitment to exploring his own creativity and reflecting his vision on the album, Pàmies performed, recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered Guidelines/Fonaments himself, over the course of four years, in various places.

Preceding the album release on April 4th through his own Protomaterial Records, he has shared two singles, ‘Esperança’, which means hope, featuring guest vocals from his former student Martina Perpinyà, and ‘Pes’. Of the latter, Pàmies says:

“In Catalan, “pes” means weight. I think of this as an apparently simple piece of music, similarly to the famous prelude in C Major by J.S.Bach of the Well-Tempered Clavier. The weight here refers to the importance of harmony as a grounding element of music.”

Immediately enthralling, both tracks display the boundless scope of the upcoming Guidelines/Fonaments. Take a listen below.


Malmin and Åshild Vetrhus’ collaborative album out in March

21 February 2025

March 7th will see the release of Malmin with Åshild Vetrhus, an enchanting album of Norwegian folk songs that should be on everyone’s radar. The album sprouted from a collaboration between Malmin, the core duo of Anders Hana and Olav Christer Rossebø, and singer Åshild Vetrhus, “in their mission to unearth the raw untamed folk music of Rogaland region in Norway”. Malmin with Åshild Vetrhus also marks the very first release on new record label Krets.
Across the 9 songs of the album, there’s a variety of contexts and functions the music is used for, as the press release describes, including “music for work, for making love, for remedy and repenting and music for dying”.

Malmin also shared some insight into the recording process:

“In Malmin, we always start by studying the early recordings of the oldest sources. These recordings are packed with information and are often surprisingly open for interpretation. While we preserve as many old tropes as possible, we take great liberty in coloring the instruments with amplification. We hear how the colors of new technology keep the old styles mighty and strong. In hearing the source material with modern ears, we unwillingly tend to project the music of our times on the tradition. With Malmin, we work towards the opposite, by projecting the tradition, as pure as possible, on modernity.”

For a taster of what’s on offer, here’s the magical and moving opening piece, ‘Springar from Svein P. Eikeland/Tveitaslåtten/Når mitt øie trett av møie’.

Gregory Uhlmann, Josh Johnson & Sam Wilkes share second single, ‘Arpy’

20 February 2025

Photo: Roman Koval

Guitarist Gregory Uhlmann, saxophonist Josh Johnson, and bassist Sam Wilkes, who are some of most daring and brilliant musicians of the LA new jazz scene, have recently joined forces for a new chamber trio. They had previously announced the release of a debut collaborative album, Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes, and shared then the immersive and enthralling ‘Frica’, which instantly got us under their spell. Ahead of the album’s release on March 14th through International Anthem, they are teasing it again with new single ‘Arpy’, an utterly engrossing, emotive and atmospheric track. Take a listen now.

El León Pardo unveils animated video for second single ‘Cumbia Espacial’

19 February 2025

El León Pardo is the project of Jorge Emiliano Pardo, who has a remarkably rich musical history, including stints with groups like Ondatrópica, Curupira, Frente Cumbiero and the UK/Colombian Mestizo project. Inspired by Colombian folklore, the Cartagena-born, Bogotá-based trumpeter, flautist and multi-instrumentalist created his El León Pardo project in 2013, bringing to compositional fruition Latin American rhythms and sounds melded with elements of psychedelia and jazz improvisation. With a love for the kuisi, an indigenous wind instrument from Colombia’s Caribbean coast, which has become a symbol of resistance, El León Pardo always holds on to his instrument. Next month he is releasing a new album titled Viaje Sideral (Space Voyage), described as “an astral journey in which the kuisi is the vehicle and the life force of the rhythm”. Releasing on March 21st through AYA Records, Viaje Sideral pays “tribute to the psychedelia of the tropical world of the Caribbean in the 1970s and 80s”, whilst also embracing influences from artists like Terry Riley, Kraftwerk and Mad Professor.

Last week saw El León Pardo release a second single from his upcoming album called ‘Cumbia Espacial’, featuring Colombian rapper N. Hardem. A treat for the ears, ‘Cumbia Espacial’ is a burst of celestial radiance. The single is offered with an accompanying animated video made by Santiago Amaya Quimbayo. Watch it now.

Sopa Boba’s debut album, That Moment, out in March

18 February 2025

Photo: Gaëtan Streel

Emerging at the tail end of last year, Sopa Boba is a Belgian-Dutch project that brings together playwright Jean Vangeebergen, singer G.W. Sok (The Ex) and composer Pavel Tchikov (Ogives). They are gearing up to release their debut album, That Moment, a collection of songs conveying acute social-political themes of our world. The album is an adaptation of the eponymous text by Moldovan author Nicoleta Esinencu, who based herself on a real event in Moldova where a father punished his son for stealing some money by cutting his finger off. The author, like the band, reflect on the corrosive consumerist society we live on, “describing with irony the downward spiral of capitalist society”, as the press release describes. Brimming with thought and urgency, the upcoming That Moment is fuelled by piercing spoken word, harsh modular synths, and a neo-classical string quartet.

That Moment is out on March 7th through Sub Rosa, and for a taste of what’s on offer, check out their latest single, the staggering and unsettling ‘That Magical Moment’.

Listen to Ciao Kennedy’s new single ‘Limbo Rainbow’

14 February 2025

Last month, Ciao Kennedy announced the release of their debut album, Solarium, out on March 21st through Sdban Ultra. After pricking our ears with the mesmeric, infectious and immediately enjoyable ‘Nothing‘, the Brussels-based quintet are back with new single ‘Limbo Rainbow’. Entrancing and enigmatic, the track went through many changes before getting to its final form. As the guitarist explained, “it’s like a rough stone we polished, almost by accident”. Take a listen now.