Back in March experimental guitar virtuoso and singer-songwriter Eric Chenaux announced the release of Delights Of My Life. Joined by fellow Canadian musicians Phillipe Melanson (Bernice, Joseph Shabason, U.S Girls) on electronic percussion, and longtime collaborator Ryan Driver on Wurlitzer organ, this is his first release as Eric Chenaux Trio. Following the delightful album opener ‘This Ain’t Life’, the sweetand intimate ‘These Tings’ has emerged as a second single. The track is offered with a video directed as usual by experimental filmmaker and longtime collaborator Eric Cazdyn and featuring dancer and choreographer Angela Schubot. Watch it below.
A sax superhero like no other, Colin Stetson has dazzled us time and again throughout the years with his absolutely staggering and powerful compositions. So we’re ecstatic to know he is gearing up to release a new album, his first solo recording since 2017’s All This I Do For Glory, which was one of Album Picks of the Year then. Entitled The love it took to leave you, the record arrives on September 13th through Invada Records and Envision Records.
The Canadian-American saxophonist, multireedist, and composer recorded the album last year at Montreal’s The Darling Foundry, a nineteenth-century metalworks factory converted into a contemporary art complex, with a giant main room still keeping its raw architecture of brick, concrete and steel. Speaking about recording the album there, Stetson says:
“We were using the same live setup as I normally would to amplify – a full PA in the building’s spaces – so we were really able to move the kind of air that I can move, really saturating the room, hitting the walls hard. And then we further fleshed it out.”
Speaking further about the upcoming album, he adds:
“The essence of it is me. It’s the most personal thing that I do – and can do. There’s an evolution of my body and technical capabilities that keeps on, so every time I make another record, there are things that I could only have played now.”
September is a long way away but Stetson has already shared the magnificent title track as the first single, a track that despite being written some years ago, was always intended as a pillar of an album. ‘The love it took to leave you’, in Stetson’s own words, “is a love letter to self and to solitude and to tall old trees that sway and creak in the wind and rain.” The singles comes with an accompanying video directed by Derrick Belcham. Watch it below.
Following a stand-alone single, ‘Getting Reminders’, featuring Beirut’s Zach Condon on trumpet, Efterklang are back with exciting news. The Danish trio have officially announced their upcoming album, Things We Have In Common, set for release on September 27th through City Slang.
With Things We Have In Common, Efterklang brings to a close a trilogy that includes 2019’s Altid Sammen and 2021’s Windflowers, which saw them delve into themes of human connection, the relationship between humans and nature, and collective spirituality. The new album sees the return of pianist and composer Rune Mølgaard, who co-wrote seven of the nine songs on the record. Rune’s personal journey, including his experience and departure from the Mormon Church, has deeply influenced the album’s themes and direction. “Towards the end of the album process we talked about belonging, in relation to Rune’s journey – how he no longer found that feeling in the church,” Rasmus said of the album’s title. “We talked about how Casper’s sense of belonging is tied to something nomadic, and about how Mads and I associate this with our families.”
To bring the album to life, Efterklang enlisted other collaborators, including Finnish drummer Tatu Rönkkö, Venezuelan guitarist Hector Tosta and Guatemalan cellist and singer Mabe Fratti.
Accompanying the album announcement is a new beautiful and compelling single, ‘Plant’, featuring Mabe Fratti on cello and vocals. Vocalist Casper Clausen describes it as “a song dedicated to the act of reaching out, beyond ourselves, daring to go beyond our inner world and share ourselves with others, putting our vulnerability on display, like a plant reaching for the light.” He adds:
“This is one of the first songs we wrote for the new album, and it’s been a long journey, starting from a sketch by our longtime friend, collaborator, and co-founder of Efterklang, pianist Rune Mølgaard.”
Mabe Fratti has also said that recording ‘Plant’ with Efterklang “was extremely joyful as I remember witnessing the song developing when I went with Efterklang to Sommertræf two years ago. It’s a breeze, this song. I felt that Casper’s tone and mine are super friendly with each other!”
The band are offering ‘Plant’ with a video directed and created by Søren Lynggaard and Niels Buhl Hendriksen. Watch it below.
With the impending release of Bom Sangue Mau, and following the transcendent first single ‘Lago de Puro Êxtase’, Porto based ensemble HHY & The Macumbas have shared a second preview of the album with a new pounding and ritualistic single titled ‘Topo Do Crânio’. Listen to it below and watch out for the album release on May 31st through Horror Vector.
Back in March, wonderful news emerged of a new album from Oberland, Dargent, Elieh, Halal, the new quartet of Frédéric D. Oberland (Oiseaux-Tempête), Grégory Dargent (H), Tony Elieh (Karkhana) and Wassim Halal (Polyphème). Sihr is their debut album as a quartet and is set for release on May 24th through Sub Rosa. Following their inaugural and tantalizing first single, ‘Oui-Ja’aa‘, they have shared another track from the album called ‘OhmShlag (Quake Tango)’. The single is offered with a Super8 film directed by Oberland & Dargent and you can watch it below.
Fearless Movement, the eagerly awaited new album from virtuoso saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Kamasi Washington, is out today through Young. Washington had previously shared the exhilarating and electrifying lead single ‘Prologue’ and this week he raised the bar of excitement with new single ‘Get Lit’ featuring funk legend George Clinton and American rapper D Smoke. Give it a listen below and go grab the album.
