John Ghost have a new album on the way, Thin Air . Mirror Land, the follow-up to 2019’s Airships Are Organisms, which was one of our Album Picks of the Year. The extraordinary Ghent based instrumental sextet had already enticed us with ‘The Dimmed’ and today they are sharing the epic opening track ‘The Quantities’, further attesting to their musical prowess and inventiveness. The new single “is a sonic journey that’ll take you from the heart of the Middle East, with a spicy ‘Dune’ vibe, to a futuristic, mechanical wonderland that’s bursting with bombastic vibes”, as the press release describes. “In this sonic whirlwind, you’ll catch ethereal melodies dancing freely amidst the relentless, never-ending machine.”
Grab Thin Air . Mirror Land when it’s out on October 6th through Sdban Records and right now listen to ‘The Quantities’.
As if we weren’t excited enough for the upcoming corto.alto‘s debut album Bad With Names, the Glaswegian prodigious multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer shared today a third single from it called ‘Latency’. Featuring James Copus, ‘Latency’ follows previously released tracks ‘Bye’ and ‘Slope’ and the single is offered with a video recorded live at Strange Field in Glasgow. Watch it below and watch out for the release of Bad With Names on October 6th through New Soil x Bridge The Gap.
A central figure of the contemporary UK scene, and a longtime favourite here at CTD, Bex Burch is gearing to release There is only love and fear. Marking the first album under her own name, it saw the gifted composer, percussionist, producer and instrument maker compose and record it in various spaces in the US with an astonishing cast of musicians including Ben LaMar Gay, Macie Stewart, Anna Butterss, Mikel Patrick Avery, and Dan Bitney of Tortoise.
Burch enticed us back in July with the stunningly deep and beautiful ‘Dawn blessings’ and now she is sharing a second track from the album called ‘Don’t go back to sleep’, co-composed by and featuring Dan Bitney (synthesizer). Prompted by the rhythms and melodies of birdsong, ‘Don’t go back to sleep’ is an elevating and delightfully enchanting song full of wonder. Speaking about the single, Burch comments:
“‘Don’t go back to sleep’ is simply polymetric exploration of time. With Dan Bitney in the room, I’m falling, phasing, almost. Pushing the boundaries of time. If the beat is a tiny moment within the vastness of space around it, then playing with that space and where to place the note is my joy.”
Dan Bitney had also this to say about it:
“I had a wonderful time meeting Bex. We got coffee first, then we hit the studio. Ben showed up a little later. We were really getting into a groove together, it felt natural trying different ideas, we were meshing. Then a tornado rolled through Chicago, the sirens went off and we stopped and looked at the sky. Soon we returned to the studio and made more music. We eased the atmospheric pressure and cleared the skies. This session was joyful and I’m super happy to have been part of it.”
Burch has made a video to accompany the track, and commenting on it she said:
“Filmed from the back of a boat or from inside the water at various lakes around Berlin, Gransee, Teglersee, bit further North in Usedom and further south on the coast of Portugal. Water, waves, the rhythm of wave, the energy and shapes of waves are massively important to me. I learnt more about this album swimming in the lake than in the studio.
This video, for ‘Don’t go back to sleep,’ also features the elemental sun, setting along those waves on one horizon, which seems to try to move in and out of sync with the other horizon of swans taking off, even with moments where the swans and the sunlight merge together into shapes of light. Which echoes mine and Danny’s sound waves moving in and out of sync and towards and away, becoming each other and separating: the combination of those waves affecting each other is what you hear.”
Now watch the video below.
There is only love and fear is set for release on October 20th through International Anthem.
There’s just over a week to go until Don Kapot release their much-anticipated fourth album I Love Tempo. After sharing the album’s opening track, ‘Me Pig’, and the ecstatic ‘Macarona’, the Brussels based threesome are ramping up theexcitement with the third single and title track ‘I Love Tempo’. Strap yourself in for a wild ride.
Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is the fifth instalment in Matana Roberts‘ project Coin Coin, a remarkable and visionary twelve-part work exploring African-American history, which stretches back to 2011. When the album news emerged last June, the extraordinary alto saxophonist, composer, improviser and sound experimentalist gave us a phenomenal taster of it with the opening 10 minutes of the album featuring the three-song suite “we said” / “different rings” / “unbenkownst”. With just over three weeks to go until Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is released, Roberts are sharing two new tracks, ‘shake my bones’ and ‘a(way) is not an option’. Give them a listen now.
Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is out on September 29th through Constellation Records
Experimental composer and producer Louis Carnell launches today 111, his new curated series of collaborative works with artists from across the globe. Comprising 15 collaborations, and conceived to try to “trace the shape of hope, in an epoch of disintegration”, 111 “aim[s] to question how and with whom we collaborate, and where we can find commonality and community.” Carnell will unveil a new work on every third Tuesday through Mute, starting today with ‘one’, a collaborative piece with English actress, composer and musician Keeley Forsyth. At once unsettling and beautiful, ‘one’ comes with a visual accompaniment, directed by Carnell & Arcin Sagdic. Here it is.
