Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble releases second single ‘Return of the Lost Tribe’

24 January 2024

The monumental feat that is Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble‘s 50th anniversary is something worth celebrating and they´re doing that with a special new album titled Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit. The record arrives on March 8th through Spiritmuse Records and they had already teased it with lead single ‘Compared To What’. As if we needed more reasons to be excited, Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble  have shared a second exhilarating single called ‘Return of the Lost Tribe’, composed by El’Zabar in the 90s and originally recorded in the 2000s by a group of Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians leaders, including El’Zabar, Malachi Favors, Joseph Jarman, Kalaparusha Maurice Mcyntyer, and Adegoke Steve Colson. El’Zabar comments:

“The music intends to convey that something powerful and inspired is returning, or coming around again with inspired vigor and wisdom. I feel deep inside me that we are all connected with energies of refined frequency. Each of us possesses the ability to tap into ageless energy which can restore and make us fresh. ‘Return of The Lost Tribe’ speaks to the remembrance of glory that will come again in the present, once we acquire the knowledge to tap into it.”

‘Return of the Lost Tribe’ is offered with a video and you watch it below.

Elena Setién’s new album, Moonlit Reveries, out this Friday

24 January 2024

Photo: Pablo Axpe

This Friday will see the release of Elena Setién‘s new album, Moonlit Reveries, through Thrill Jockey. The upcoming album features drummer / percussionist Glenn Kotche, who she met when he was touring Spain with his band Wilco. The pair went on to join forces, inspiring one another. “Funnily enough, I, being a Spanish artist, sought inspiration in the rhythms of a Chicago drummer to reach something with a Latin feel to it,” Setién explained. “A somehow surrealistic way to get there.”

The album also features guitar more prominently than before, which the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist pins down to Steve Gunn introducing her to the music of Bridget St. John. “What fascinated me right from the beginning, was the calmness in her voice and her low register. Her music inspired me to try to write songs with a guitar rather than a keyboard: there’s more space for the voice and the sound qualities of both voice and guitar kind of melt into each other.”

To get us enticed, Setién has shared two gorgeous cuts from the album, the title track and ‘Surfacing’. Listen to both below.


Adult Jazz return with their first new music in 8 years

24 January 2024

Photo: Tash Cutts & Samuel Travis

All hail the return of Adult Jazz, who are back after a too-lengthy hiatus from making music. We fell for the Leeds-based experimental quartet back in 2013, the year before they released their incredible and widely acclaimed debut Gist Is, which remains a timeless favourite album of ours. Harry Burgess, Tim Slater, Steven Wells and Tom Howe, who make up Adult Jazz, have teased their come back a few times and we’re so pleased they have finally shared ‘Dusk Song’, their first new music in 8 years. “It’s loosely about slowness and panic coexisting,” explains Burgess, “and not really being able to comprehend those paces alongside each other when it comes to how to respond to the climate crisis.”

‘Dusk Song’ comes with accompanying visuals directed by Harry Burgess. Speaking about it, Burgess comments:

“I shot the video with my cousin in a river on boxing day 2022, after a day of festive comfort. It was freezing. We were both in the river and there had been a lot of rain. We had the alarm/flash setting on a camping light and we filmed in slow mo in one take. He is wearing these lorry inner tubes across him like a tunic – something Tim came up with on a stag do no less, and has stuck visually – and a cowl I got from Etsy.”

Full of brooding beauty, ‘Dusk Song’ is after your ears.

Moor Mother announces new LP, The Great Bailout, and shares ‘Guilty’

22 January 2024

Photo: Ebru Yildiz

There’s exciting news from Moor Mother, aka Camae Ayewa, who has announced the release of her ninth studio album titled The Great Bailout. Releasing on March 8th through ANTI-, it saw the composer, poet, vocalist and educator invite an impressive list of artists to contribute to the album, including Lonnie Holley, Mary Lattimore, Vijay Ayer, Angel Bat Dawid, Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty and Aaron Dilloway, amongs others.

The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act and the 1835 Slavery Abolition Act acted as the backdrop for the album. “Research is a major part of my work, and researching history – particularly African history, philosophy and time – is a major interest,” Ayewa commented. “Europe and Africa have a very intimate and brutal relationship throughout time. I’m interested in exploring that relationship of colonialism and liberation, in this case in Great Britain.”

The delicate, spectral, and sublime opening track ‘Guilty’, shared alongside the album announcement, masterfully sets the tone for the album. “Displacement and its effects are not discussed enough,” Ayewa says. “The PTSD of displacement should be a focus, and as we have the opportunity to learn about things happening in the world, we also have the opportunity to learn about ourselves. We’ve been through so many different acts of systematic violence.”

‘Guilty’ features Lonnie Holley, Mary Lattimore and Raia Was, and is offered with an accompanying video by Scott Kiernan. Watch it below.

Meril Wubslin share first single, ‘Un Calme’, off upcoming fourth LP, Faire Ça

20 January 2024

March 1st will see the release of Faire Ça, the fourth album from Meril Wubslin, following 2021’s Alors Quoi. Comprising Christian Garcia-Gaucher (vocals, guitar and synths), David Costenaro (drums), both based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Valérie Niederoest (vocals and guitar), based in Brussels, Belgium, the trio continues to evolve and expand their sound palette. On the upcoming Faire Ça, Meril Wubslin travelled to London to record the album with Kwake Bass, known for his membership in Speakers Corner Quartet and collaborations with Kae Tempest, Tirzah, Mica Levi, amongst others. “What unites us,” the band said, “is curiosity and the desire to seek and explore. If we continue to make albums and perform, there will always be evolution. Taking risks – that’s what interests us.”

Sonically, the album matches the trio’s wider sense of scope and vision, tapping into myriad influences, “stack[ing] up the intimacy of blues and folk, the experimentation of post-rock and 1960s minimalism, and the heady production values of dub and hip-hop”, as the press release describes. “Their appreciation for avant-garde composers such as Steve Reich, Glenn Branca and Terry Riley, plus folk music from Eastern Europe, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa informs how the trio arrange rhythm and melody, and pushes them to greater heights on Faire Ça.”

Ahead of the album’s release through Bongo Joe Records, lead single ‘Un Calme’ provides an excellent glimpse of what’s to come.

Ruth Goller set to release new album, SKYLLUMINA, in March; shares lead single ‘Below my skin’

19 January 2024

Photo: Zak Watson

Anyone who has been paying some attention to the UK jazz and improv scenes over the last couple of decades will be familiar with Ruth Goller. The Italian-born, UK-based bassist, vocalist and composer has recorded and performed with a ton of incredible bands and musicians including Acoustic Ladyland, Vula Viel, Melt Yourself Down, Alabaster DePlume, Shabaka Hutchings, Kit Downes, Paul McCartney, Damon Albarn and many others. Goller has announced the release of SKYLLUMINA, following 2021’s SKYLLA, and marking her debut album for International Anthem.

Each piece on SKYLLUMINA features a different drummer, including Tom Skinner, Seb Rochford, Bex Burch, Frank Rosaly, Jim Hart, and others, each one of them taking a decidedly different approach to augmenting her music. “I love playing with drummers and I decided to focus this work on my close connection to that instrument and the amazing people I’ve met in my life who play it”, Goller commented. “I started getting a list of drummers together that I wanted to be on the record and it was huge. I had to limit myself.”

Speaking about SKYLLUMINA, she had this to say:

“This record is a deep insight into my soul and my recent life. It’s coming through a meteor storm and grasping the first light. Coming out of a very unexpected tumultuous time. There are a lot of feelings of grief, loss, hope, pure love, connection to my home, death, and new configurations — as well as self-discovery.”

Ahead of its release on March 1s, Goller has shared lead single ‘Below my skin’, an eerily beautiful track “about intimacy and sensuality, being so close to someone, becoming one and losing the boundaries of your own body”. The track features Skinner on drums, and of their collaboration, she says:

“I first saw Tom play when I just moved to London and I started to explore the music scene. He was doing a regular jam session at the Jazz Cafe at the time and I used to go every Sunday. I always found his playing so creative and fell in love with his sound. After a few years we then met properly and played together a lot in Melt Yourself Down. His touch, sound and inventiveness is completely unique to me. I was so happy when he said he would be up for being on the record and I knew to expect something completely unique and unexpected, which is what he did.”

‘Below my skin’ comes with an accompanying video created and directed by Zak Watson and you can watch it below.