Matana Roberts announces new Coin Coin instalment, Chapter Five: In the garden…

15 June 2023

Photo: Anna Niedermeier

Extraordinary alto saxophonist, composer, improviser and sound experimentalist Matana Roberts is back with a new instalment in their long running and acclaimed experimental project Coin Coin. They have announced Chapter Five: In the garden…, marking the project’s fifth instalment, which counts already four releases, 2011’s Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres, 2013’s Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile, 2015’s Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee and 2019’s Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis.

To bring Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… to life, Roberts enlisted an outstanding ensemble including bass clarinettist Stuart Bogie, vocalist/actor Gitanjali Jain, alto saxophonist Darius Jones, alto clarinettist Matt Lavelle, percussionists Mike Pride and Ryan Sawyer, violinist Mazz Swift and pianist Cory Smythe and Kyp Malone (TV On The Radio, Bent Arcana) took over the production duties.

The album’s theme, a reaction to the current abortion laws in the US, is laid out sonically with elements of jazz, avant-garde composition, folk and spoken word. Roberts tells the story of a woman who dies from an illegal abortion. “I wanted to talk about this issue, but in a way where she gets some sense of liberation,” Roberts explained, offering some further insight into the album in their accompanying liner notes essay:

“There is something quite rancid going on in America right now, more so than any time I have seen… a growing cohort of ghoul-like humans who seem to think that your body does not belong to you. We have seen some of this before, we knew it was wrong, and we eradicated some of the issues. It wasn’t perfect how we did it, but we did it. And yet, like a never-ending train wreck, here we are again. The lack of access to safe and legal abortion services disproportionately affects marginalized and low-income communities, who often lack the resources and support to obtain safe reproductive health care. Reproductive healthcare includes abortion….

This over-focus and policing of ovaried bodies are getting in the way of the number one killer of American children today: firearms. This bounce around being dangerously shouted from conservative rooftops about trans bodies is just an extension of this reproductive rights fight.”

Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the garden… is set for release on September 29th through Constellation Records and ahead of it they are giving us a phenomenal taster of it with the opening 10 minutes of the album featuring the three-song suite “we said” / “different rings” / “unbenkownst”. Here it is.

Emergence Collective to release new album, Fly Tower, later this month

13 June 2023

Live performance of Fly Tower

Emergence Collective is a supergroup of sorts comprised of some of the most masterful improvisers out of Sheffield and the North of England. They bring a diverse sonic palette and sensibility to their music that reflects their musical backgrounds in folk, jazz, experimental, early and contemporary classical music. With a revolving cast of up to fifteen musicians, their music is completely improvised and partly informed by where they play, “with just the starting key a deciding factor”, as the press release explains, “and little to no amplification is used in performances to preserve the natural sound of the instruments”, both ancient and modern.

Emergence Collective have announced the release of their new album, Fly Tower, captured live at the Abbeydale Picturehouse Fly Tower in Sheffield, a reverberant space, which is something they take into consideration when playing. Fly Tower will see the light of day on June 30th through Redundant Span Records and ahead of it they have shared the enthralling, gorgeous, mysterious and mesmerizing lead track, ‘S7 1FS-3’.  Press play and immerse yourself in the realm of their magic.

KAU announce debut album, The Cycle Repeats, and share first single ‘Little Steps’

09 June 2023

Photo: Monday JR

Back in April, KAU‘s two EPS, 2021’s II and 2022’s III, received a vinyl treatment through Sdban Records as a Record Store Day release. The Brussels trio of Andre Breidlid (drums), Matteo Genovese (bass) and Jan Janzen (keys) had then also hinted at new material for this Autumn and news of a debut album has now been revealed. Entitled The Cycle Repeats, the record arrives on September 22nd and KAU are teasing it with the first single, ‘Little Steps’. The track is a “a showcase of their ability to roam through different genres and moods in relative ease and finesse”, as the label describes, ” tak[ing] the listener through a trip of constant build-ups and rests of energy, at times danceable and at times hypnotical.”

Utterly brilliant and intoxicating, ‘Little Steps’ will have you dancing along in seconds.

The Leaf Label launches offshoot, Odda Recordings, inaugural release from Flaer arrives in August

08 June 2023

The Leaf Label has been dazzling us for years and years with its beautiful releases from incredible artists and bands. So we’re over the moon to know they have a new offshoot called Odda Recordings and the first signings have now been revealed. Flaer, the moniker of Leicestershire-based artist, pianist and cellist Realf Heygate, will mark Odda’s inaugural release with a mini-album titled Preludes. On the upcoming release, “Flaer explore[s] themes of memory and the pastoral uncanny”,as the press release describes, “channelling the tension and unease between the pastoral idyll of the English countryside and the darkness which lurks beneath the surface”.

Preludes will see the light of day on August 4th and ahead of it Flaer has unveiled the first gorgeous and gentle single, ‘Follow’. and an accompanying video created by himself. Watch it below.

Watch Divide And Dissolve’s video for new single ‘Indignation’

02 June 2023

Photo: Yatri Niehaus

Systemic, the new album Divide and Dissolve, is set for release on June 30th through Invada and back in April they shared the beautiful, powerful and gripping lead single ‘Blood Quantum’. As we get closer to release day, Divide and Dissolve are teasing the album again with a poignant and potent new single titled ‘Indignation’. The track is “a prayer that land be given back to Indigenous people,” explained saxophonist and guitarist Takiaya Reed. “A hope that future generations no longer experience the atrocities and fervent violence that colonisation continues to bring forth.” ‘Indignation’ is offered with a video directed by Sepi Mashiahof and Reed had this to say about it:

“In reflecting on the powerful and vital messaging found in Divide and Dissolve’s music: decolonization, the destruction of white supremacy, and liberation from oppressive structures—this video is about the collective grief we experience about the lives we all could have were it not for the cruel and arbitrary systems of power that impede each and every one of our potentials. The potential to truly love ourselves and each other is distorted by the agendas of vicious capitalist vultures who seek to emaciate our joys, bonds, and communities for their own gain. This video depicts an abstracted portrait of what suffering under these accelerating conditions feels like. Technology, dysphoria, dream-form sentience, transaction, and depersonalization constitute the thematic palette, laid upon the hope of shedding our current forms and transcending into boundless, beautiful ether.”

Watch the video below.

John Carroll Kirby shares new single ‘Sun Go Down’ from upcoming album Blowout

01 June 2023

Photo: Sela Shiloni

LA based producer, composer and keyboardist John Carroll Kirby is gearing up to release a new album later this month. Entitled Blowout, the album germinated during his stay in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica in 2021, where he was filming an episode of his travelog Kirby’s Gold with the Kawe Calypso Band. Hermeto Pascoal’s legendary performance of ‘Música Da Lagoa’ is cited as a key influence, and Kirby added he was also inspired by “failed utopias” like the Heaven’s Gate cult and Fyre Festival, and the myths that followed. He comments:

“I’m trying to use imagination in music to create my own myths, and keep things playful and funny and not too sanctimonious.”

Blowout arrives on June 30th through Stones Throw but we can already hear the joyous and shimmering ‘Sun Goes Down’. It comes with an accompanying video directed by Zach Sulak and you can watch it now.