Zel Zele release charity compilation EL ELE: Solidarity in the aftermath of Turkey & Syria earthquakes

14 March 2023

In the aftermath of the recent devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, London and Istanbul based label Zel Zele have put together a stellar compilation to raise funds for the people affected. Entitled El Ele, which means ‘hand in hand’ in Turkish, the wide-ranging compilation “unites the label’s musician friends from all over the globe to raise awareness through music”, as the label describes, spanning various genres, including jazz, new-wave, ambient, rock, experimental and dub. Featuring 21 tracks, El Ele includes contributions from a plethora of phenomenal artists and bands such as spiritual jazz quartet Ill Considered, free-jazz band Konstrukt’s Umut Çağlar, Anatolian psych band BaBa Zula’s Murat Ertel with Ulrich Troyer,London based musicians Tamar Osborn and Idris Rahman, Istanbul based drummer Berke Can Ozcan, New York based Michael Coltun (from Mdou Moctar), Porto based vocalist Ece Canlı, Franco-Peruvian thereminist Veronik, avant-garde French duo Pray Pax and many more. Zel Zele’s founders Debora and Ece had this to say about it:

“There is no compensation for the heartache we feel for what has happened in Turkey and Syria. The earthquake in our country Turkey has left an unimaginable number of people and animals homeless and hopeless at freezing winter temperatures. The damage is immense, especially with the slow response of the state, lacking sufficient emergency preparation and care. There’s a wide range of needs that will require donations for months, or even years.

100% of the sales of this bandcamp digital release will be donated to local NGOs along with friends’ grass-roots initiatives active in the region both in Turkey and Syria. Your generosity will help to provide shelter, food, education and more for those in need. In this lengthy recovery process, every donation has a significant impact on victims’ lives.

The first donations are planned for Bir Kira Bir Yuva, Molham Team in Syria as well our friends, KAF, who are directly working in the field in Kahramanmaraş, providing food, shelter and education. As the needs of the region evolve, we will add new organisations to donate for and will keep you informed.”

A crucial and meaningful project, EL ELE: Solidarity in the aftermath of Turkey & Syria earthquakes is now available on bandcamp and is packed with sonic energy. If you need more reasons to get your hands on it, Angélica Salvi, Ece Canlı, João Pais Filipe and Pedro Augusto, all based in Portugal, close the compilation with a monumental, hypnotic and ecstatic track called ’12’. Take a listen below.

ECHT! reveal second single ‘Mtwk Part 2’

10 March 2023

May 5th will see the release of Sink-Along, the second album from Brussels based outfit ECHT!, following their outstanding 2019 Inwane. The quartet had already shared the tight and hypnotic first single ‘Vault-A’, and today they have revealed a dope second track called ‘Mtwk Part 2’. The band comments:

“You’ll have to wait for the album to come out to hear the first part but we liked the idea to have a song in two parts in an album and you’ll see that the link between those two is actually not that obvious. Each of them tells a different story and can stand by itself but if you try to put those two tracks together you’ll see that, as a whole, they become something else. In the end it made sense for us and we like that little mystery connection for the listener.”

Listen to ‘Mtwk Part 2’ below.

Sink-Along is out on May 5th through Sdban Ultra.

Watch Issei Herr’s live video for new single ‘Aveu (The Beginning Is a Farewell) feat. Maria BC’

09 March 2023

Last month Issei Herr shared the stunning and poignant double single, ‘Aubade (The Farewell Is a Beginning)’ b/w ‘Prelude (An Eternity of Light)’, lifted from her upcoming debut album, Distant Intervals. With release day less than a month away, the Brooklyn based cellist and composer is enticing us again with a gorgeous and engrossing new single called ‘Aveu (The Beginning Is a Farewell)’ featuring Maria BC. The single comes accompanied by a deeply emotive live video, filmed live at St. John’s in the Village last December. Watch it below.

Distant Intervals is out on April 7th through NNA Tapes

Helen Money & Will Thomas team up for debut collaborative album Trace

08 March 2023

Photo: Jim Newberry

Incredibly prolific, versatile and visionary cellist Alison Chesley, who performs under the moniker Helen Money, has her hand in many projects and collaborations. For nearly three decades, she has composed for film, theatre and dance, as well playing, touring and working in albums from artists like Mono, Anthrax, Broken Social Scene, Russian Circles, Chris Connelly, Shellac, Neurosis, Earth and many more. Her latest project sees her joining forces with composer and producer Will Thomas, with whom she has frequently collaborated. They have announced the release of Trace, which marks their debut collaborative full-length album. The pair’s prowess for invoking emotion is palpable in the upcoming record, and according to the press release, “they each use their highly developed means of conveying emotion through sound and their collaborative natures to accentuate the emotional arc of the compositions”. On the upcoming album, Chesley and Thomas “utilize timbre, tone and dynamics as essential tools in crafting stunning emotive narratives. Together, the duo wield sound with inquisitive aplomb, burrowing into each other’s sonic aesthetics and unearthing irrefutable beauty.”

Trace is set for release on May 12th through Thrill Jockey and ahead of it the pair have shared the striking first single ‘Thieves’. Here it is.

Asher Gamedze announces new album, Turbulence and Pulse, and shares first single ‘Wynter Time’

07 March 2023

Photo: Dylan Valley

We’re a little bit more than excited to hear about the upcoming double album from visionary and virtuosic South African drummer, composer, writer and activist Asher Gamedze. Entitled Turbulence and Pulse, it follows his extraordinarily staggering and powerful debut Dialectic Soul, which was one of our Album Picks of 2020. Slated for a May 5th release through International Anthem and Mushroom Hour Half Hour, Turbulence and Pulse already looks set to be one of the most compelling albums to bless our ears in 2023.

Gamedze’s forthcoming album saw him working with the same stellar quartet from Dialectic Soul, comprising Thembinkosi Mavimbela on bass, Buddy Wells on tenor saxophone, and Robbin Fassie on trumpet.  “I chose these musicians specifically because I know that they’re open to understanding and interpreting the music from my perspective and my way of working.”

On Turbulence and Pulse, and as the press release explains, Gamedze “explores relationships of time between music and history”. He elaborates:

“Time in music is a metaphor for thinking about time in history and how time moves. The way we’re taught history is generally in a way that robs people of agency in imagining themselves as part of history and how it unfolds. It is something that happens to us. I think there’s a productive metaphor in that because the sense of time in music is created by musicians playing together. If we can use that to think about history and time in history, you can see that, actually, history is created by people in a whole range of ways. At the heart of it, historical motion is created by people organized and acting together, whether for progressive or reactionary ends.”

Gamedze also shared his thoughts on the album’s theme, stating that the underlying message is “to claim a form of historical agency and realize that the future is not a foregone conclusion. As people we can organize, to transform our world in small and big ways.” He continues:

“One of the ideas that I’ve had for a long time is to unsettle the way that people think about culture as something static or as something fixed. There’s this tension in Africa, because of the way that the colonists have constructed visions of African culture, where people speak about this need to conserve culture and document it. I think that’s important, but you also have to understand that these things are moving. And we are the people who have to participate in that movement.”

To bring the album to life, Gamedze has also enlisted guest vocalist Julian Otis on one of the tracks and the LP, CD, and digital versions feature three additional tracks, alternate versions of ‘Melancholia’, ‘If It Rains. To Pursue Truth’,  and ‘Out Stepped Zim’, which Gamedze recorded on a rooftop in Cairo with his Another Time Ensemble featuring Maurice Louca (synthesizers), Adham Zidan (bass), Alan Bishop (alto saxophone, voice), and Chérif El-Masri (guitar).

It may seem like a long way away for the album to be out but we can already hear the stunning and celestial ‘Wynter Time’, which only heightens our anticipation for what is to come. ‘Wynter Time’ is dedicated to Black Caribbean radical intellectual, writer and cultural theorist Sylvia Wynter, in particular her book Black Metamorphosis. The single if offered with an accompanying video directed by Adrian Van Wyk and you can watch it below.