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.

Marla Hansen announces second album, Salt, and shares first single ‘Chains’

17 January 2024

Berlin based violist, violinist and singer-songwriter Marla Hansen may not be a household name but chances are most people have already heard some of her work in some form. She has credits as a performing and recording musician on various albums and has worked with everyone from Sufjan Stevens, The National and Jens Lekman to Mocky, Oneida, Jay-Z, and Alice and Ravi Coltrane among many others.

Hansen has announced the release of Salt, her second album following 2020’s Dust. Set for release on March 15th through Karaoke Kalk, Salt is a wonderful collision of acoustic instruments such as viola, violin, piano and guitar with electronics. “I started to explore synthesizers and electronic production myself,” she comments. “I am proud that I accomplished many of the electronic elements of the new album by myself, and otherwise laid the groundwork for the final electronic structures through my own experiments. I always wanted to record a ‘big’ record, one that has a lot of power and sound, and this one is ‘bigger’ than anything I have done so far.”

Salt saw Hansen enlist the help of like-minded musicians and friends including singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist DM Stith, producer and composer Simon Goff, Alice Dixon (Oriel Quartett) on cello, Kyle Resnick (The National, Beirut) on trumpet, Benjamin Lanz (The National, Beirut) on trombone and tuba, Miles Perkin on bass and The Notwist’s drummer Andi Haberl who “crafted perfect drum and percussion parts to move the songs wherever they needed to go, either into their driving grooves, slow-build explosions or gentle swells of feeling”, as Hansen puts it herself. Simon Goff has also taken on production and engineering duties.

Speaking on the themes behind the album, Hansen says:

“The themes revolve around a feeling of being trapped. Having to stay inside during the pandemic, with all the silence and stillness coming with it. Simultaneously, I was caught up in a professional situation that was not working for me, yet it required a lot of energy and time. I was thinking a lot about how to break old habits and patterns. Patterns in my life, patterns I saw my friends and loved-ones stuck in. There are a lot of ways that people can be trapped, and breaking out of that requires a lot of courage and energy – on all levels. The title ‘Salt’ seemed to fit, ocean themes showed up naturally in some of the songs, and I thought often about the quote: ‘The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.’ Maybe I was just dreaming of the ocean, since it was inaccessible for the first time! But I wanted a cure for this feeling of being trapped, in a time of uncertainty and anxiety, salt as a remedy seemed to have some truth in it: sweat, tears or the sea.”

First single and opening track ‘Chains’, brimming with absolute magic, serves as an exhilarating taste of what she’ll be throwing at us. Here it is.