Bibio announces new album, PHANTOM BRICKWORKS (LPII), and shares lead single ‘DINORWIC’

09 October 2024

We love Bibio and new music from him is always a very exciting and special treat. Back in 2017, the English musician and producer released Phantom Brickworks, realizing later it had became an ongoing project. Bibio is now continuing it and has announced the release of PHANTOM BRICKWORKS (LPII), arriving on November 22nd through Warp. As with the first album, it features mostly improvised music and is inspired by certain places around Britain and the charge they carry. Bibio comments:

“Human beings are highly sensitive to the atmospheres of places, which can be enhanced or dramatically altered when you learn the context of their history… echoes and voices can sometimes be heard, in some way or another. Places sometimes have things to say.”

He continues:

“When I announced the first ‘PHANTOM BRICKWORKS’ album, I discussed how places can be charged with meaning, depending on what they’d been through. That observation continues with the new album. It consists of mostly improvised music, using some of the same techniques as before as well as developing new ones that are unique to this album. Some familiar territory is revisited, both musically and in terms of the types of locations that interest me. North Wales plays a significant role, but this album reaches beyond – extending into the realms of legends, as stories passed down through generations can sometimes haunt a place more vividly.”

The eerie and atmospheric ‘DINORWIC’ is the first single to emerge from his upcoming album. The track is named after a well known former slate mine in Llanberis, Wales, and Bibio has made a video to accompany it. Watch it now.

Sarah Neufeld / Richard Reed Parry / Rebecca Foon share video for new single ‘Circular’

09 October 2024

We’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of First Sounds, the debut collaborative album that pairs three of Montreal’s finest musicians, composer and violinist Sarah Neufeld, multi-instrumentalist and musical polymath Richard Reed Parry and cellist and composer Rebecca Foon. The album will see the light of day on November 1st through Envision Records in North America and One Little Independent in the UK and the rest of the world, and the trio had already shared the utterly engrossing and otherworldly ‘Maria’ and ‘Slow New Year’, the spellbinding piece that sprouted the album. They are enticing us again with new single ‘Circular’, a track about “plaintive ghosts”, as Neufeld describes. She continues, “Three rivers of subconscious thought weaving through one another, picking up and leaving off, through a dense fog and the long reeds. We search for hidden answers in the muck and the morning air. Bows gently scrape strings, round and round and round”.

‘Circular’ is offered with a video made by Jason Last and you can watch it now.

Resavoir releases new single ‘Life Before’

08 October 2024

Last week, and in anticipation of their European tour in November/December, Resavoir released a new single called ‘Life Before’. Composed by bandleader Will Miller in collaboration with graphic designer and illustrator Crystal Zapata, ‘Life Before’ was originally commissioned by Chicago’s Public Media Institute for their publication Quarantine Times. The track is offered with a visual accompaniment made by Crystal Zapata and you can watch it below.

Listen to Flock’s new single ‘Meet Your Shadow’

02 October 2024

UK supergroup Flock are gearing up to release their much anticipated second album, Flock II. Bex Burch, Danalogue, Sarathy Korwar, Al MacSween and Tamar Osborn, who make up the project, had previously teased the record with lead single ‘Capillary Waves’. With the album arriving at the tail end of the month, Flock have let loose a second taste from it, the intoxicating and beguiling ‘Meet Your Shadow’. Speaking about it, Danalogue explains:

“Meet your own shadow is about delving into parts of yourself that you don’t necessarily want to look at, parts we don’t want to accept about ourselves, the darker aspects. Personally this was one of my favourite improvisations from our recording session, born from a series of compositional games, where we each got to lead a section. It has a sort of raw urgency and darkness that I tend to lean towards, so I took back to my studio later to give it some extra synths and production, to try and take it all the way, very happy the rest of Flock were okay with how it ended up!”

Listen to ‘Meet Your Shadow’ below. You’ll be hitting the play button the second it ends.

Flock II is out on October 25th through Strut Records

New group LEDJ set to release debut EP, Circuit Breaker, later this month

01 October 2024

There’s an exciting new band emerging from London’s musical melting pot – LEDJ. Made up of saxophonist James Arben (Musical Director for Mulatu Astatke), keyboardist Danny Keane (Heliocentrics, Nitin Sawhney), along with drummer Luke Christie and tuba player Ed Ashby, both founding members of the Hackney Colliery Band, their sound merges experimental jazz with infectious rhythms and a love for the dancefloor, drawing on influences including New Orleans Brass with Ethiopian influences, Nu-Jazz, hi-life, electronica and pop.

Circuit Breaker marks LEDJ’s debut EP, referencing the lockdowns of 2020-2021 when the group began writing. The EP arrives on October 24th through Bridge The Gap, and last week they’ve dropped the title track as a lead single. A perfect introduction to their music, ‘Circuit Breaker’ combines folk-like melodies, afro-punk, and dancehall grooves with electronic soundscapes, and you can listen to it below.

Alex E. Chávez premieres video for new single ‘catalina’

29 September 2024

We’re less than three weeks away from the release of Alex E. Chávez‘s debut solo album Sonorous Present. Following ‘cómplices de luto’ and ‘The Shadow’, the talented multi-instrumentalist, producer, educator, and scholar is previewing the album with new single ‘catalina’. Of the track, Chávez comments:

“Delicate, brief, “catalina” is dedicated to my older sister—Catalina—who was the fatal victim of domestic violence at the age of 18. A song of grief and regret, I lament not being able to say goodbye to her: “inside of me, everything falls apart without you; rather than my own reflection, I see you in the mirror.” I was eleven at the time, and this act of violence and loss deeply shaped my family history and my path as a writer.”

‘catalina’ is offered with an animated video directed by Estudio Pneuma in collaboration with Celestial Brizuela, and you can watch it below.

Sonorous Present is out on October 18th through Artivist Entertainment.