Surya Botofasina teases upcoming album with new single ‘Your Soul is Perfect (Supreme Uniter)’

Photo: Squint

A staggeringly talented keyboardist and vocalist, Surya Botofasina recently got us well excited announcing the release of his second album, Ashram Sun. Releasing on October 18th through Spiritmuse Records, it follows his incredibly stunning and contemplative Everyone’s Children, released a couple of years ago. Surya had already shared the celestial and soothing single, ‘(The Circle) of Compassion’, and now he’s enticing us again with ‘Your Soul is Perfect (Supreme Uniter)’, a luscious and groovy track featuring Surya’s mother Radha Botofasina on harp and vocals. Speaking about it, Surya says:

“The question of our individual purpose as we traverse on Earth is often one we are scared to meet. The intention of this song is to acknowledge the truth about us all- we are beautiful for the beings that we are, with a Light that can never be extinguished. Having courage to be content and happy is no small feat when mental health is involved… The Supreme Uniter is not only a nod to this, but to Meghan Stabile as she dances to this one from stars back to down to us. All of this is only possible due to Magnificent Shakti of Swamini Turiyasangitananda.”

Listen to ‘Your Soul is Perfect (Supreme Uniter)’ below.

Photay’s new album, Windswept, out now; listen to final single ‘Global Wind Trade’

Photay‘s fifth album, Windswept, came out last Friday through Mexican Summer. Coinciding with the release, the LA based composer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and producer released a new single called ‘Global Wind Trade’. Jazzy and more dance-driven, the track is unpredictable and catchy in equal parts. ‘Global Wind Trade’ comes with an accompanying video filmed and edited by Carson Davis Brown. Watch it below.

Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp set to release new album, Ventre Unique, in November

Swiss-based multi-national collective Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp announced earlier this month the release of their sixth album. Entitled Ventre Unique, it follows their 2021 We’re Ok But We’re Lost Anyway and is due out on November 1st through Bongo Joe Records.

With an ever evolving line-up, including a rhythm section, percussion and string players, the group founded in Geneva in 2006 by double bass player and cultural activist Vincent Bertholet currently comprises 12 members. “This idea of changing line-ups is very important in the process of writing the music”, said Bertholet. “I always try to propose very simple ideas, which don’t require too much rehearsal to be played. The music must be simple so that whoever the musician is, it doesn’t change the sound of the band. It’s one of the key ideas behind the band and the compositions. We’re a collective force and individuals are not important.”

Impossible to be pigeonholed, with each member bringing a unique set of influences, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp touch on everything from folk and krautrock to post-punk and African rhythms. Thematically, the upcoming Ventre Unique “seems to be one of people working out what they have in common”, as the press release release describes. “Miraculously, the group are able to tackle themes like these in a spirit of generosity, inspiring people to come together and dance – not to forget their troubles, but to forge a new commonality.”

Speaking about the album’s title, Bertholet commented:

“It comes from a sentence I sing in ‘Coagule’. Pour le moment, on coagule en un ventre unique, on s’agglomère autour d’un rêve commun” (which translates as “for the moment, we’re coagulating into a single womb, coalescing around a common dream.”). The idea is that we’re all the same, with all our differences. “We’re one, coming from Pachamama, also known as Mother Earth. Saying that, I feel it’s a bit cheesy, but it’s an important idea.”

Ahead of the album’s release, the collective have shared ‘Breath’, which serves as a first phenomenal taste of what’s coming. Take a listen below.

clipping. tease upcoming album with new track ‘Run It’

Photo: Iddo Goldberg

West Coast experimental hip-hop trio clipping. dropped a massive tune yesterday that will have you out of your seat straight away. Titled ‘Run It’, the track is lifted from their “long-in-the-works Hip-Hop and Cyberpunk” upcoming album and marks their first new music since their 2020 widely acclaimed and insanely good Visions of Bodies Being Burned. Rapper Daveed Diggs and producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, who make up the trio, are offering ‘Run It’ with a befittingly fast-paced video filled with quick cuts of cities in the US, Germany, South Korea, Thailand, India, and the Czech Republic, where it was filmed. Lawrence Klein directs. Watch it below.

Listen to Evan Chapman’s second single ‘Bodies’

Last month, Evan Chapman shared the beautiful, triumphant and fiercely rhythmic ‘Fractions’, and upon first listen we knew we had discovered something very special. As if we weren’t excited enough for the release of his debut solo album, Reveries, the Philly-based percussionist, composer, and filmmaker has unveiled a second single called ‘Bodies’. Utterly gorgeous and exhilarating, ‘Bodies’ plays like a nurturing lullaby before intensifying towards a rapturous climax. Listen to it below and grab Reveries when it drops on October 11th through Better Company Records.

Le Guess Who? reveals its full 2024 line-up; Maurice Louca, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly, Nadah El Shazly, Merope, Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan and Brian Jackson amongst new additons

Returning to the charming city of Utrecht from November 7th – 10th to celebrate its 17th edition, Le Guess Who? is on course to reach beyond the stars with a sprawling and stellar line-up that each year continues to grow ever more adventurous and majestic. Today the organizers announced their full programme for this year’s edition, and adding to an already hefty bill are artists and bands like Maurice Louca, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly, Nadah El Shazly, Merope, Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan and Creation Rebel feat Adrian Sherwood.

Le Guess Who? unveiled today its final batch of bands and artists to join previously announced guest curators Mabe Fratti, Bo Ningen, Arooj Aftab, Crystallmess, DARKSIDE, and Touching Bass as well as FYEAR, Patrick Shiroishi, Fuensanta, Nancy Mounir, Rafael Toral and Asher Gamedze, amongst many more.

Egyptian composer, producer and vocalist Nadah El Shazly; the exhilarating rhythms of Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor & Anatolian bağlama master Erdal Erzincan; LA-based rapper and producer Chuck Strangers; and keyboardist, flautist, composer and arranger Brian Jackson, known for his collaborations with Gil Scott-Heron in the 1970s, are amidst the new thrilling names added to Le Guess Who?’s general programme. The line up for this year also includes a collaboration between producer Abul Mogard (AKA Guido Zen) and record producer, composer, and mastering engineer Rafael Anton Irisarri, who earlier this year released their album Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close; as well as the likes of Brooklyn noise rockers Couch Slut presenting their latest record You Could Do It Tonight; Montreal-based songwriter, guitarist and singer Myriam Gendron, the eccentric and pulsating rhythms of Kabeaushé, and the collision of improvisation and electronics brought to life by Oceanic & Greetje Bijma, the project that brings together leftfield techno and ambient producer Oceanic and award-winning jazz vocalist Greetje Bijma.

Earlier this year, Bolivian-born singer and multi-medium performer Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Puerto Rican drummer, composer and sound designer Frank Rosaly, released their incredible debut album, MESTIZX, a journey through their culture and identity, intersecting their heritage from Bolivia, Brazil, and Puerto Rico. Their performance in one of the many idyllic venues across Utrecht will be an unmissable one as will the premiere of Hadra Immersive, the musical ritual ceremony of Sufis in North Africa, presented by Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra and visual artist Arion de Munck. Le Guess Who? will also present the throbbing and hypnotic rhythms of Peruvian sound artist Ale Hop with Congolese guitarist Titi Bakorta; Egyptian singer and rapper Abyusif; the soulful harmonies of Annie & The Caldwells, the gospel singing outfit of Annie Caldwell along with her husband and their children; Turkish noise rock trio Haossaa; Merope, the duo of Lithuanian singer and kanklės player Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė and guitarist and producer Bert Cools, who will have their new album, Vėjula, also out in early November; American folk artist Tucker Zimmerman and the incendiary live show of Party Dozen, the Sydney noise duo of saxophonist Kirsty Tickle and percussionist Jonathan Boulet, whose fourth album Crime in Australia came out a few days ago.

Appearing on the bill is the legendary Creation Rebel with live mix by producer Adrian Sherwood; London-based vocalist, producer, performer and visual artist GAIKA, who performs with poet and musician James Massiah, and Scientist, the project of Jamaican electronics wizard Hopeton Overton Brown. Following DNA? AND?’s compelling, powerful and heartfelt performance at Le Guess Who? 2019 edition, the festival invited the Oslo-based improv-band collective back, as well as experimental trio Ex-Easter Island Head and Sex Swing who are set to showcase their fierceness on the back of their third studio album, Golden Triangle, releasing next month.

Over the years Le Guess Who? has been nurturing an open space for rare and unique performances and collaborations and this year is no different. Hannah Elsisi presents Chromesthesia is one of the special projects newly unveiled not to be missed. A social and intellectual historian of the Modern Middle East, the British-Egyptian activist will host a monumental 13-hour performance on Saturday November 9th. Her curation includes the immeasurably talented and adventurous composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Maurice Louca, who has enthralled us long ago with his solo works and numerous collaborations; the choreography of multidisciplinary Afrocentric dancer and artist Natisa Exocé Kasongo with audiovisual design by Berlin based Dutch audiovisual composer and software developer Tarik Barri; Sierra Leone-born, New York-based artist and musician Lamin Fofana, who founded the Sci-Fi & Fantasy and Black Studies labels; Amsterdam based, Brazilian-born producer and vocalist LYZZA; South Florida electronic and hip hop producer Nick León, and Sonic Interventions, a futuristic Jazz collective “who unites diverse languages, instruments, rhythms and dance for collective meditation and healing, improvisation and groove”. The Chromesthesia curation further includes musical polyglot, composer, educator and storyteller Jowee Omicil, whose performances are always different, immersive and transformative; Afro-Portuguese electronic producer and DJ Nídia, Ghanaian/French producer and vocalist , South African rapper, singer, songwriter, and actress Sho Madjozi and Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Yaya Bey.

Le Guess Who? will also be hosting Sounds of Places, a residency program from Radio Alhara, commissioned by Wonder Cabinet, which “seeks to create sonic analogies beyond the spatial limit every sound emerges from.” Following its first edition this year in the occupied Cremisan Valley in Palestine, the artists involved there will present their works at the festival, including Lebanese multi-instrumentalist, video artist and puppeteer Yara Asmar, who next month will release her new album synth waltzes & accordion laments; Christmas in Mourning, a special radio piece commissioned by Radio Al-Hara and co-composed by Sary Moussa and Abed Kobeissy, which was streamed simultaneously by 18 community stations worldwide last Christmas, and Sasha Shadid x Julmud.

There’s plenty more goodness to head to Utrecht for, head over to leguesswho.com for the full details of the line-up, tickets and other info. 4-Day Passes and Friday tickets are sold out but you can still grab tickets for Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.