‘Dos Pasajeros’ is the second single previewing Melenas‘s upcoming third album Ahora, following the brilliant and thrilling lead single ‘Bang’. The Spanish quartet are offering the track with a lyric video animated by Juanjo Seguro. Watch it below and watch out for the album release on September 29th through Trouble in Mind.
Photo: Chris Almeida
A year on from the release of the magnificent and critically acclaimed GOLD, Alabaster DePlume has announced the release of a new album titled Come With Fierce Grace. All of the songs on the upcoming album were recorded during the same sessions as GOLD, but Come With Fierce Grace is not a collection of leftover material or outtakes. As the press release describes, “it’s a continuation of the organic collaborative and improvisational process that he established… almost as if GOLD has grown a new limb or aged into a new phase.” After spending most of 2022 touring GOLD, Alabaster spent the beginning of this year revisiting the material from the album sessions and guiding it towards a new becoming.
Come With Fierce Grace is mostly an instrumental affair, with the exception of a few tracks that feature vocal contributions from Momoko Gill (aka MettaShiba), Falle Nioke, and Donna Thompson. Alabaster thrives on collaborations and the new album features contributions from a wealth of talented artists, including Sarathy Korwar, Tom Skinner, Rozi Plain, Tom Herbert, Matthew Bourne, Ruth Goller, Conrad Singh, Ursula Russell and many more.
We’ll have to wait until September 8th for the record to be out through International Anthem but Alabaster has already shared a tender and emotionally powerful first offering, ‘Did You Know’, featuring Momoko Gill on vocals. Take a listen below.
Photo: Joris Jeursen
John Ghost‘s Airships Are Organisms, released in 2019, made it our Album Picks of the Year then and remains a favourite album. So we’re thrilled to know the extraordinary Ghent based instrumental sextet are following it up with a new full-length album titled Thin Air . Mirror Land. John Ghost never cease to stroll the path of inventiveness and adventure, and the upcoming Thin Air . Mirror Land has “a slightly more sombre tone, focussing on a broader range of instruments and an emphasis on percussive elements”, as the press release describes. The album “is a musical urge for introspection in a chaotic reality, and a longing to reconnect with a natural environment.”
As with their previous record, the band enlisted Jørgen Træen (Jaga Jazzist, Kaizers Orchestra, Hubro, Sondre Lerche) to handle production duties. Guitarist and composer Jo De Geest, who helms the outfit, cites a spectrum of influences such as Hans Zimmer, György Ligeti, Magma, The Residents, Disasterpeace, James Holden & The Animal Spirits, Do Make Say Think, William Basinski, and Jóhann Jóhannsson. Both the album and the song titles are inspired by Edvard Munch’s painting “The Storm” (1893).
Thin Air . Mirror Land arrives on October 6th through Sdban Records but John Ghost are already teasing it with ‘The Dimmed’. If the single is is anything to go by, we just can’t for October to come.
Photo: Alex Kazobolis
Penguin Cafe‘s highly anticipated new album, Rain Before Seven…, is nearing its release date on July 7th through Erased Tapes. After enticing us with two singles, ‘Second Variety’ and ‘In Re Budd’, the ensemble of Arthur Jeffes have shared another track from the album, the radiant and joyful ‘Find Your Feet’. Speaking about the track, Jeffes had this to say:
“This track started life as a little groove on piano and ukulele – all based on reversing shapes across the bar. It’s a trick often used in South American music, hence the slightly caribbean/South American vibe. The structure does end up being quite minimalist and then it’s just a question of the other elements having fun over the top…”
Listen to ‘Find Your Feet’ below.
The wildly creative partnership between Haitian six-piece Chouk Bwa and Belgian production duo The Ångströmers started when they met in 2016 and went on to perform together, merging Afro-Caribbean voodoo polyrhythms with bass-weight dub electronics. Following their 2020 debut album Vodou Alé, Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers are back with a new record. Entitled Somanti, the album came about after they reunited in May 2022 for an extensive European tour, punctuated by “near-constant rehearsals, discussions, experiments, intercultural dialogue and meticulous musical negotiations”, as the press release describes. Frederic Alstadt of The Ångströmers comments:
“Being reunited again meant that we played with those tracks, we arranged them in many ways, and they became something totally different. We had toured for about two months and we set up three days of recording sessions at a studio in Brussels, and basically we recorded everything in one day. There was one day of set-up, one day of recording and one day of fine tuning. We were playing live in the studio, and then we spent about two weeks producing it. It was done pretty fast, actually. It really came from the live energy.”
Described as an album of ritual, on Somanti most of the tracks are based on ceremonial music, with the lyrics drawn from proverbs. Chouk Bwa’s manager Michael Wolteche elaborates:
“In Vodou, all of the rites have different rhythms. We could choose the ones that would most please Western ears, but we will not do that, we keep all of the different aspects. This is our way to respect a very complex, subtle culture. It is not just entertainment music. It is meant to bring the people to trance, but for people in Europe or the US, to bring a spiritual connection to the party.”
Somanti is set for release on October 6th through Bongo Joe Records and ahead of it they have let loose the entrancing and intoxicating title track.
With an ambitious 15-year career spanning 8 studio albums, various collaborations and an incredible record label, Matthew Halsall has firmly established himself as a major force on the UK jazz scene. The gifted trumpeter, composer, bandleader and producer crafts unique spellbinding compositons blending jazz, electronica, global and spiritual jazz influences. He is back with his much anticipated ninth album, An Ever Changing View, releasing on September 8th through his own Gondwana Records. Described as his most experimental yet, the forthcoming album was written whilst Halsall stayed in both a architect’s house with stunning sea views in north Wales and a striking modernist house in Bridlington, in the northeast of England, which he likens to a “landscape painting” allowing him to encapsulate “the feeling of openness and escapism”.
In the studio, Halsall “would almost be like a DJ at points, bringing different elements in and out for people to play on top of”, as he puts it himself. “It was a new and fun way of working, and everyone beautifully adapted to that process.”
An Ever Changing View is both uplifting and balmy. Halsall comments:
“Music can elevate and inspire us, or soothe and protect us. It’s a quality that I hear in spiritual jazz, ambient music or just in the sound of the sea and the wind in the trees. I wanted that quality to be part of the tapestry I created for this album.”
September seems like a long way away but we can already hear the magical and moving lead single ‘Water Street’. It comes with an accompanying video directed by Matthew Halsall, Daniel Halsall and Rich Williams, and you can watch it below.
